Susan P. Tokarz, John Roll
SAO
Driven by a dramatic, almost five fold increase in data flow, a system we named RoadRunner has been developed for automatic and rapid reduction of CCD two-dimensional long slit data taken at the 60'' telescope at the Fred L. Whipple Observatory on Mt. Hopkins. Over 20,000 spectra have been reduced in the two and a half years of operation of the FAST spectrograph. This is the same number reduced in twelve years of operation of the previous one-dimensional reticon detector. The 70 to 100 observations made in a typical night are now routinely reduced in a few hours the following day. The reduction process starts with bringing the raw data across the Internet from the telescope. It includes processing CCD images to one-dimensional wavelength and velocity calibrated images, archiving, and finally, entry of the reduced data into a database. A first and essential step in the automation process was to specify observing protocols which ensure the quality of the data and make automation possible. RoadRunner utilizes the widely available IRAF data reduction routines combined in processing scripts to automatically extract objects with a wide range of profiles. At the heart of the system are checks for consistency, reliability and accuracy of the reduction process. Final results are stored in a relational database to allow quick and easy access to the data. Roadrunner has allowed us to keep up-to-date with the huge increase in the amount of data as well as the wider variety of observing programs obtained with FAST. An added benefit of timely reduction is immediate feedback to the observer contributing to increased observing efficiency.