Interface to the SMA sensitivity/beam calculator at http://sma1.sma.hawaii.edu/beamcalc.html

sma.py

import os
import urllib
import string

URL = "http://sma1.sma.hawaii.edu/beamcalc.html"

VALID_SIDEBANDS = ['lower', 'upper']

VALID_PWVS = [0.2, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0]

VALID_CONFIGURATIONS = ['subcompact', 'compact', 'compact-north',
                        'extended', 'very-extended']


def estimate(frequency, sideband, declination, min_elevation,
             ha_start, ha_end, pwv, configuration, filename):

    params = {}

    params['freq'] = frequency

    if sideband in VALID_SIDEBANDS:
        params['sb'] = sideband[0]
    else:
        raise Exception("sideband should be one of %s" %
                        string.join(VALID_SIDEBANDS, '/'))

    params['dec'] = declination
    params['elmin'] = min_elevation
    params['hastart'] = ha_start
    params['haend'] = ha_end

    if pwv in VALID_PWVS:
        params['pwv'] = pwv
    else:
        raise Exception("PWV should be one of %s" %
                        string.join([str(p) for p in VALID_PWVS], '/'))

    if configuration in VALID_CONFIGURATIONS:
        params['config'] = configuration
    else:
        raise Exception("configuration should be one of %s" %
                        string.join(VALID_CONFIGURATIONS, '/'))

    params['ps'] = 'ps'

    params = urllib.urlencode(params)

    u = urllib.urlopen(URL, params)

    if filename.endswith('.pdf'):

        filename = filename.replace('.pdf', '.ps')

        f = open(filename, 'wb')
        f.write(u.read())
        f.close()

        os.system('ps2pdf %s' % filename)
        os.system('rm %s' % filename)

    else:

        f = open(filename, 'wb')
        f.write(u.read())
        f.close()

This belongs in astroquery, doesn't it? Or the new thing... =)

(I got here from google)