User guide

The user guide explains how each stage of the wcc-sim pipeline works and which knobs it exposes. It complements the auto-generated API reference, which gives the exact signatures and docstrings.

• Concepts: the pipeline
  • Design principles
  • The two detectors
  • Key parameters at a glance
• Gaia catalogs
  • Cone search
  • On-disk cache
  • Bringing your own catalog
  • The output catalog
• From Gaia photometry to count rates
  • Memoization
  • Sky and dark
  • Practical notes
• PSFs and defocus
  • The three focus modes
  • Oversampled rendering
  • Stamp sizes
  • Jitter
• Noise and saturation
  • The model
  • n_reads semantics
  • Per-star saturation flags
  • Quick example
• FITS output and WCS
  • The SimulatedField object
  • FITS layout
  • Header cards
  • The WCS
  • Reading it back

If you prefer to learn by example, the Tutorials cover the same material as runnable notebooks.