Ground-based exoplanet surveys such as SuperWASP, HATNet and KELT have discovered close to two hundred transiting extrasolar planets in the past several years. The strategy of these surveys is to look at a large field of view and measure the brightnesses of its bright stars to around half a percent per point precision, which is adequate for detecting hot Jupiters. Typically, these surveys use CCD detectors to achieve high precision photometry. These CCDs, however, are expensive relative to other consumer-grade optical imaging devices, such as digital single-lens reflex cameras (DSLRs). We look at the possibility of using a digital single-lens reflex camera for precision photometry. Specifically, we used a Canon EOS 60D camera that records light in 3 colors simultaneously. The DSLR was integrated into the HATNet survey and collected observations for a month, after which photometry was extracted for 6600 stars in a selected stellar field. We found that the DSLR achieves a best-case median absolute deviation (MAD) of 4.6 mmag per 180 s exposure when the DSLR color channels are combined, and 1000 stars are measured to better than 10 mmag (1%). Also, we achieve 10\,mmag or better photometry in the individual colors. This is good enough to detect transiting hot Jupiters. We performed a candidate search on all stars and found four candidates, one of which is KELT-3b, the only known transiting hot Jupiter in our selected field. We conclude that the Canon 60D is a cheap, lightweight device capable of useful photometry in multiple colors.
There are several methods for timing occultations. Many astronomers may not have access to standard video timing tools, but many of them have access to digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) cameras. In order to increase the accuracy of timing, creative methods were investigated for the DSLR camera technique. These can be a good substitute for the less accurate visual timing method. Two methods of continuous shooting and afocal filming were examined in the experimental phase, which was calculated using maximum speed sequential photography 5 shots per second, 0.1 seconds precision and 60 frames per …
Near all-sky imaging photometry was performed from a boat on the Gulf of Aqaba to measure the night sky brightness in a coastal environment. The boat was not anchored, and therefore drifted and rocked. The camera was mounted on a tripod without any inertia/motion stabilization. A commercial digital single lens reflex (DSLR) camera and fisheye lens were used with ISO setting of 6400, with the exposure time varied between 0.5 s and 5 s. We find that despite movement of the vessel the measurements produce quantitatively comparable results apart from saturation effects. We discuss the potential an…
We present the results of testing the commercial digital camera Nikon D90 with a CMOS sensor for high-speed photometry with a small telescope Celestron 11" on Peak Terskol. CMOS sensor allows to perform photometry in 3 filters simultaneously that gives a great advantage compared with monochrome CCD detectors. The Bayer BGR color system of CMOS sensors is close to the Johnson BVR system. The results of testing show that we can measure the stars up to V $\simeq$ 14 with the precision of 0.01 mag. Stars up to magnitude V $\sim$ 10 can shoot at 24 frames per second in the video mode.
Artificial skyglow is dynamic due to changing atmospheric conditions and the switching on and off of artificial lights throughout the night. Street lights as well as the ornamental illumination of historical sites and buildings are sometimes switched off at a certain time to save energy. Ornamental lights in particular are often directed upwards, and can therefore have a major contribution towards brightening of the night sky. Here we use differential photometry to investigate the change in night sky brightness and illuminance during an automated regular switch-off of ornamental light in the t…
High-Precision Photometry with a scientific CMOS Camera: II On-Sky Testing of the Marana camera at the NGTS facility
University of Warwick（华威大学）；Queen’s University Belfast（贝尔法斯特女王大学）；Andor Technology Ltd（安多技术有限公司）；Universidad Católica del Norte（北方天主教大学）；University of Leicester（莱斯特大学）；Universidad Diego Portales（迭戈·波特莱斯大学）
We present some results of testing of commercial color CMOS cameras for astronomical applications. CMOS sensors allow to perform photometry in three filters simultaneously that gives a great advantage compared with monochrome CCD detectors. The Bayer BGR colour system realized in CMOS sensors is close to the Johnson BVR system. We demonstrate transformation from the Bayer color system to the Johnson one. Our photometric measurements with color CMOS cameras coupled to small telescopes (11 - 30 inch) reveal that in video mode stars up to V $\sim$ 9 can be shot at 24 frames per second. Using a hi…
We have designed, constructed, and tested an InGaAs near-infrared camera to explore whether low-cost detectors can make small (<1 m) telescopes capable of precise (<1 mmag) infrared photometry of relatively bright targets. The camera is constructed around the 640x512 pixel APS640C sensor built by FLIR Electro-Optical Components. We designed custom analog-to-digital electronics for maximum stability and minimum noise. The InGaAs dark current halves with every 7 deg C of cooling, and we reduce it to 840 e-/s/pixel (with a pixel-to-pixel variation of +/-200 e-/s/pixel) by cooling the array to -20…
We present new observations of two Galactic globular clusters, PAL4 and PAL14, using the Wide-Field Channel of the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) on board the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), and reanalyze archival data from a third, NGC2419. We matched our photometry of hundreds of stars in these fields from the ACS images to existing, ground-based photometry of faint sequences which were calibrated on the standard BVRI system of Landolt. These stars are significantly fainter than those generally used for HST calibration purposes, and therefore are much better matched to supporting precision …
We present an analysis of new extremely deep images of the resolved stellar population of the Boötes I ultra faint dwarf spheroidal galaxy. These new data were taken with the Hubble Space Telescope, using the Advanced Camera for Surveys (Wide Field Camera) and Wide Field Camera 3 (UVIS), with filters F606W and F814W (essentially V and I), as part of a program to derive the low-mass stellar initial mass function in this galaxy. We compare and contrast two approaches to obtaining the stellar photometry, namely ePSF and DAOPHOT. We identify likely members of Boötes I based on the location of each…
PlatoSim: An end-to-end PLATO camera simulator for modelling high-precision space-based photometry
KU Leuven（荷语鲁汶大学）；German Aerospace Center（德国航空航天中心）；Observatoire de Paris, Université PSL, Sorbonne Université, Université Paris Cité, CNRS（巴黎天文台、巴黎文理研究大学、索邦大学、巴黎西岱大学、法国国家科学研究中心）
Obtaining accurate photometry of bright stars from the ground remains tricky because of the danger of overexposure of the target and/or lack of suitable nearby comparison star. The century-old method of the objective wire mesh used to produce multiple stellar images seems attractive for precision CCD photometry of such stars. Our tests on beta Cep and its comparison star differing by 5 magnitudes prove very encouraging. Using a CCD camera and a 20 cm telescope with objective covered with a plastic wire mesh, located in poor weather conditions we obtained differential photometry of precision 4.…
Charge-transfer loss on the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) onboard the Hubble Space Telescope is a primary source of uncertainty in stellar photometry obtained with this camera. This effect, discovered shortly after the camera was installed, has grown over time and can dim stars by several tenths of a magnitude (or even more, in particularly bad cases). The impact of CTE loss on WFPC2 stellar photometry was characterized by several studies between 1998 and 2000, but has received diminished attention since ACS became HST's primary imager. After the failure of ACS in January 2007, WFPC2 o…
An accurate geometric distortion solution for the Hubble Space Telescope UVIS-channel of Wide Field Camera 3 is the first step towards its use for high precision astrometry. In this work we present an average correction that enables a relative astrometric accuracy of ~1 mas (in each axis for well exposed stars) in three broad-band ultraviolet filters (F225W, F275W, and F336W). More data and a better understanding of the instrument are required to constrain the solution to a higher level of accuracy.
This research focuses on identifying high redshift galaxies from LABOCA(LArge APEX BOlometer CAmera) and SPIRE(The Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver) maps towards proto-cluster candidates initially selected from the SPT (South pole telescope) survey. Based on the Multi-Gaussian fitting algorithm, we cross-match all significant LABOCA sources at SPIRE wavelengths based on their coordinates and signal to noise ratio to derive their photometry at 250, 350, 500 and 870 $μm$. We use this information to calculate a photometric redshift for SPT sources towards cluster fields. The code was dev…
We present panchromatic resolved stellar photometry for 22 million stars in the Local Group dwarf spiral Triangulum (M33), derived from Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) in the optical (F475W, F814W), and the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) in the near ultraviolet (F275W, F336W) and near-infrared (F110W, F160W) bands. The large, contiguous survey area covers $\sim$14 square kpc and extends to 3.5 kpc (14 arcmin, or 1.5-2 scale lengths) from the center of M33. The PHATTER observing strategy and photometry technique closely mimic those of the Panchro…
We present a new method to measure the vertical aerosol optical depth (VAOD) during clear nights using a wide-field imager - a CCD camera with a photographic lens on an equatorial mount. A series of 30-second exposures taken at different altitudes above the horizon can be used to measure the VAOD with a precision better than 0.008 optical depths within a few minutes. Such a measurement does not produce any light and is thus suitable for use at sites where other astronomical instruments are located. The precision of the VAOD measurement depends on laboratory calibration of spectral properties o…
The boloSource() algorithm is a tool to separate the signal of compact sources from that of the diffuse background in the timeline of far-infrared measurements performed by the PACS camera of the Herschel Space Observatory. An important characteristic and quality indicator of this method is that how well it can reproduce the flux of faint standard stars which have reliable flux estimates. For this propose we selected a few calibrator targets and constructed light curves by extracting point source flux for each repetition of the measurements independently using standard aperture photometry meth…
Betelgeuse is an important variable star with many observations in the AAVSO database, but there is an annual gap of about four months where Betelgeuse is close to the sun and not observable at night. This gap could be filled with daylight observations. The star is bright enough to be imaged with small telescopes during the day, so photometry is possible when the sun is up. We present V band photometry of Alpha Ori taken with an amateur telescope equipped with an interline-transfer CCD camera and neutral density filter. These data compare favorably with contemporaneous nighttime photometry. Th…
Three-Dimensional Velocity Analysis and Particle Size Dynamics from Multi-Site RGB-Photometry of Noctilucent Clouds
Space Research Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences（俄罗斯科学院空间研究所）；Omsk educational institution "GDDYuT"（鄂木斯克教育机构“GDDYuT”）；V.I. Chuikov school at South-East（东南区V.I.丘伊科夫学校）
Although the use of RGB photometry has exploded in the last decades due to the advent of high-quality and inexpensive digital cameras equipped with Bayer-like color filter systems, there is surprisingly no catalogue of bright stars that can be used for calibration purposes. Since due to their excessive brightness, accurate enough spectrophotometric measurements of bright stars typically cannot be performed with modern large telescopes, we have employed historical 13-color medium-narrow-band photometric data, gathered with quite reliable photomultipliers, to fit the spectrum of 1346 bright star…
Photometric pipelines struggle to estimate both the flux and flux uncertainty for stars in the presence of structured backgrounds such as filaments or clouds. However, it is exactly stars in these complex regions that are critical to understanding star formation and the structure of the interstellar medium. We develop a method, similar to Gaussian process regression, which we term local pixelwise infilling (LPI). Using a local covariance estimate, we predict the background behind each star and the uncertainty on that prediction in order to improve estimates of flux and flux uncertainty. We sho…
Charge Transfer Inefficiency (CTI) due to radiation damage above the Earth's atmosphere creates spurious trailing in Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images. Radiation damage also creates unrelated warm pixels - but these happen to be perfect for measuring CTI. We model CTI in the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS)/Wide Field Channel (WFC) and construct a physically motivated correction scheme. This operates on raw data, rather than secondary science products, by returning individual electrons to pixels from which they were unintentionally dragged during readout. We apply our correction to images f…
