"MAKEE" (MAuna Kea Echelle Extraction) is a data reduction package for the HIRES and ESI instruments at Keck Observatory. It is optimized for the spectral extraction of single, unresolved point sources (see ideal inputs ). The program "MAKEE" is designed to run non-interactively using a set of default parameters. Taking the raw HIRES FITS files as input, MAKEE determines the position (or trace) of each echelle order, defines the object and background extraction boundaries, optimally extracts a spectrum for each order, and computes wavelength calibrations. MAKEE does not do flux calibration.

MAKEE produces FITS format "spectral images" (each row is a separate echelle order spectrum). The data values are in arbitrary (relative) flux units. The wavelength calibration is defined by a a 6th order polynomial fit to each echelle order on a heliocentric, vacuum wavelength scale (in Angstroms) which is stored in the FITS header.

MAKEE will reduce data from all HIRES formats, including the single CCD format, the single CCD with Red and UV cross dispersers, and the current 3 CCD system. It can handle a variety of pixel binnings, including 1x1, 1x2, 1x4 (column x row).

Caveats to Using MAKEE
MAKEE generally works well for a large set of observations with well-defined point sources with good point-spread-functions, and good calibration exposures. However, failures occur when the PSF is not well defined, the source is not centered in the slit window, the calibration files are not adequate (e.g. no bright point source exposure when the primary object is faint), or the setup is at the far red or blue limits of the normal operating conditions. MAKEE was originally optimized to extract isolated point sources of moderate brightness (V~=15-19) in optical wavelengths (4000 to 8000 Angstroms), but has been modified to extract a wider range of observations, including setups further to red and with fainter calibration point sources.

Improvements and Changes Made to MAKEE in 2007 and 2008
In 2007, MAKEE was used to reduce a large number of HIRES observations as part of the Keck Observatory Archive (KOA) project, Several improvements have been made to MAKEE in order to yield better results over a wide variety of observation setups and object types.

The wavelength calibration has been improved to work further in the red (up to 9800 Angstroms), and the "trace" finding routines can now work on fainter point sources. The "slit finding" routines have been improved which operate on the flat field and used to fail for extreme setup ranges. The cosmic-ray masking routines have been improved, which were failing in cases where the PSF was large or the slit length to small.

In addition, MAKEE has been modified to create new ASCII tables of the output data (using the '-koa' option) for the flux and error spectra, trace solutions, spatial profiles, and wavelength calibrations.

Work on MAKEE is ongoing, as more of the current failures are investigated. In some cases, code improvements may solve the problems, in others we may need to create extra calibration files, and there may be other cases which are simply not extractable.

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(April 2008)