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By Bradley E. Schaefer
117
astro imaging
24
22
Exposure
8-inch telescope
Magnitude
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
SNR = 10
SNR = 100
10
100
1,000
10,000
Exposure (seconds)
Visual magnitude
25
Aperture
k
Dar
60-second exposure
SNR = 10
urbs
Sub
20
City
15
10
1
10
100
Aperture (centimeters)
118
1,000
1940'
1930'
15h29m
15h28m
The authors deep-field challenge is centered in this 12-wide finder chart based on a redlight photograph made with the 48-inch Oschin Schmidt telescope on Californias Palomar
Mountain. Although stars are recorded to about 20th magnitude, there is no sign of what
some astronomers believe is the possible host galaxy responsible for the gamma-ray burst
that occurred in January 1996.
119
Moon Phase
Magnitude loss
0
new
U
B
V
R
I
crescent
quarter
gibbous
full
Moon phase
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120
The Program
Here is some information for those individuals interested in running the accompanying program. The main program
consists primarily of input and output
calls to three subroutines, and a calculation of the signal-to-noise ratio. Two
subroutines (Sky and Extinction) are
presented in a companion article (page
57). The subroutine CT calculates the
number of detected photons in both the
star and background. The primary output is the SNR and the uncertainty in the
magnitude. An SNR of 10 is needed for a
confident detection of a star, while an
SNR of 3 is adequate for a marginal detection. For the best photometry, with an
uncertainty from photon statistics of less
than 0.01 magnitude,
an SNR greater than
100 is needed.
Here is an example
involving typical values
that you can use to
check that the program
is working correctly. It
is for an 8-inch f/10
Schmidt-Cassegrain
telescope with an SBIG
ST-7 camera (Kodak
KAF-0400 chip) and a
single 10-minute expo1998 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.
Magnitude loss
U
B
V
R
I
Moon Angle
3
2
1
0
30
60
90
120
astro imaging
500 VA=NS(I)+P*NB(I)+P*NR*RN*RN
510 SN(I)=NS(I)/SQR(VA)
520 SI(I)=1.068/SN(I)
530 NEXT I
550 PRINT USING " #####.##"; MA(1), MA(2), MA(3), MA(4), MA(5)
570 PRINT USING " #####.##"; SN(1), SN(2), SN(3), SN(4), SN(5)
100 RD=3.14159/180.0
590 PRINT USING " #####.##"; SI(1), SI(2), SI(3), SI(4), SI(5)
600 END
3110 X=1.0/(COS(Z/57.28))
3120 T1=(TS^2)*(X^1.2)*((WA(I)/.55)^-.4)
3130 T2=5.54*((3600.0*57.28*(WA(I)/10000.0)/D)^2)
3150 NEXT I
3180 EF(I)=(Q(I)/100.0)*TF(I)*(RE(I)^NM)*(TR(I)^(2.0*NL))
3200 NEXT I
TA=TS]
370 GOSUB 1000 : REM Extinction subroutine
3240 IN=10^(-.4*(MA(I)-MO(I)+DM(I)))
3250 PE=(WA(I)/10000.0)/(6.62E-27*2.997E+10)
3260 NS(I)=IN*F(I)*A*EF(I)*E*DL(I)*PE
3270 NB(I)=B(I)*A*EF(I)*E*DL(I)*PE*(TP^2)
3280 NEXT I
3300 PRINT USING " #####."; NS(1), NS(2), NS(3), NS(4), NS(5)
460 REM Calculate SNR (see PASP article for exact formula)
470 P=3.14159*(TA/TP)^2
3320 PRINT USING " #####."; NB(1), NB(2), NB(3), NB(4), NB(5)
3330 RETURN
121
Magnitude loss
12
9
6
3
0
18
Sun Altitude
Target at zenith
U
B
V
R
I
12
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Perhaps the most common modification will be the introduction of nonstandard filters. For this, you should
change the values for central wavelength
(WA in microns on line 40), the peak
transmission (TF expressed as a fraction
on line 3080), the full-width-half-maximum transmission of the filter (DL in
microns on line 3020), the quantum efficiency at the central wavelength (Q given
as a fraction on line 60), and the zero of
the magnitude system (MO on line 80).
For the last two quantities you can interpolate from the values given for the standard filters.
An important special case, which will
be applicable to many amateurs, is for
exposures involving no filter. Here, the
wide range of wavelengths can be handled by breaking up the optical region
into five bands with TF=1.0. The five
bands will retain the standard WA, Q,
and MO values, but take DL equal to
0.07, 0.10, 0.10, 0.20, and 0.20 to cover
the entire visible range. The source and
background counts from all five bands
should then be added together for feeding to the SNR subroutine.
Bradley Schaefer is a frequent contributor
to this magazine on diverse topics ranging
from astronomical history to sundials. At Yale
University he is involved with building an array
of CCD cameras, now installed in Venezuela,
to survey the equatorial sky for quasars.
122