NAME

Astro::Fluxes - Class for handling a collection of astronomical flux quantities.

SYNOPSIS

  use Astro::Fluxes;

  $fluxes = new Astro::Fluxes( $flux1, $flux2, $color1 );

  my $flux = $fluxes->flux( waveband => $waveband );

DESCRIPTION

Class for handling a collection of astronomical flux quantities.

METHODS

CONSTRUCTOR

new

Create a new instance of an Astro::Fluxes object.

  $fluxes = new Astro::Fluxes( $flux1, $flux2, $color1 );

Any number of Astro::Flux or Astro::FluxColor objects can be passed as arguments.

Accessor Methods

flux

Returns the flux for a requested waveband.

  my $flux = $fluxes->flux( waveband => 'J' );

Arguments are passed as key-value pairs. The sole mandatory named argument is 'waveband'; its value can either be an Astro::WaveBand object or a string that can be used to create a new Astro::WaveBand via its Filter parameter.

Optional arguments are:

  derived - Whether or not to return fluxes that have been derived
    from colors. Defaults to false, so that derived fluxes will not
    be returned.

  datetime - whether we should return a flux from a specified object,
    should be passed as a C<DateTime> object.

  type - which type of flux to return. If this is not given this method
    will default to 'mag'. If you supply a type that is not
    'mag' or 'magnitudes' and are attempting to return a derived flux,
    this method will return undef.

This method returns an Astro::Flux object.

color

Returns the color for two requested wavebands.

my $color = $fluxes->color( upper => new Astro::WaveBand( Filter => 'H' ), lower => new Astro::WaveBand( Filter => 'J' ) );

my $color = $fluxes->color( upper => new Astro::WaveBand( Filter => 'H' ), lower => new Astro::WaveBand( Filter => 'J' ), datetime => new DateTime );

Arguments are passed as key-value pairs. The two mandatory named arguments are 'upper' and 'lower', denoting the upper (longer wavelength) and lower (shorter wavelength) wavebands for the color. The value for either can be either an Astro::WaveBand object or a string that can be used to create a new Astro::WaveBand object via its Filter parameter.

The above example will return the first H-K color in the Fluxes object. The optional datetime arguement allows you to return a colour at a specific datetime stamp.

pushfluxes

Push Astro::Flux and Astro::FluxColor object into the Astro::Fluxes object,

  $fluxes->pushfluxes( $flux1, $flux2, $color1 );

Any number of Astro::Flux or Astro::FluxColor objects can be passed as arguments.

allfluxes

Returns an array of all the Astro::Flux objects contained in the Astro::Fluxes object,

  @fluxes_not_dervied = $fluxes->allfluxes();
  @fluxes_including_dervied = $fluxes->allfluxes( 'derived' );
  

by default this will not return the derived fluxes, however the method takes an optional arguement of 'derived', in which case it will do.

fluxesbywaveband

Returns an hash of all the Astro::Flux objects contained in the Astro::Fluxes object,

  @fluxes = $fluxes->fluxesbywaveband(  waveband => 'J' );

original_colors

Returns an array of the original (not derived) colors contained in the object

  @colors = $fluxes->original_colors( );

original_wavebands

Returns an array of the original (not derived) filters contained in the object

  @wavebands = $fluxes->original_wavebands( );
  @filters = $fluxes->original_wavebands( 'filters' );
  

optional arguement 'filters' returns an actual filter list rather than a list of Astro::WaveBand objects.

merge

Merges another Astro::Fluxes object with this object

  $fluxes1->merge( $fluxes2 );

datestamp

Applies a datestamp to all Astro::Flux object with this object

  $fluxes->datestamp( new DateTime );

REVISION

 $Id: Fluxes.pm,v 1.19 2005/11/15 23:50:32 bradc Exp $

AUTHORS

Brad Cavanagh <b.cavanagh@jach.hawaii.edu>, Alasdair Allan <aa@astro.ex.ac.uk>

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 2004 - 2005 Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council. All Rights Reserved.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.