Input data files

There are two types of required input files: the asteca.ini general input parameters file, and the file that contains the cluster data.

The former contains the parameters used to run all the functions in ASteCA, and it is included with the package.

The latter is provided by the user and it needs to be formatted such that it can be loaded by the pandas.read_csv() module. This file must be stored in the input/ folder and its associated plots and output files will be stored in the output/ folder. All the files inside the input/ folder (inside or outside a sub-folder) will be processed by ASteCA.

Theoretical isochrones

ASteCA needs at least one set of theoretical isochrones stored in the isochrones/ folder, to be able to apply the best-fit function that estimates the clusters’ parameters. Currently, the only isochrone files supported are those obtained via the CMD service (Girardi et al. 2002), but any set can in theory be used (with some changes made to the code). Please contact me if you wish to use a different set of theoretical isochrones.

The isochrones must be downloaded with the package ezPadova-2. This code takes care of downloading the isochrones for a given range of metallicities, storing them in files named following the proper naming convention, and place them inside a folder also with the correct name.

This way, once this code finishes you can just cut the generated folder and paste it inside the isochrones/ folder in ASteCA.