International Conference on Mathematics and Natural Sciences (ICMNS)

November 29-30, 2006, Bandung-Indonesia

Standard Star Observation by Incorporating Asinh Magnitude at The

Bosscha Observatory

Retno Pujijayanti, Chatief Kunjaya, Hakim Luthfi Malasan,

Stephen Dawni Nugraha, Desima Kristyowati
Department of Astronomy and Bosscha Observatory, Faculty Of Mathematics and Natural Sciences,
Institut Teknologi Bandung
Jl. Ganesha 10 Bandung 40132 and Jl.Teropong Bintang 1, Lembang

Abstract
Lupton et al (1999) had defined a new magnitude scale, the asinh magnitudes, and proposed
replacing the usual logarithm astronomical magnitudes with this inverse hyperbolic sine function. The new
magnitude scale can represent bright object similar to the Pogson scale, and moreover, superior for
representing data with low signal-to-noise ratio accurately. In order to calibrate the new magnitude system
for 45 cm GOTO reflector at the Bosscha Observatory, standard stars photometric observations has been
carried out on July, 16th 2006 using the telescope equipped with ST-8XME CCD camera. In this paper, the
results of the standard stars photometry incorporating asinh magnitude will be presented and will be
compared with the old logarithmic magnitude system.

Keywords : Photometry
I. Introduction
Pogson’s magnitude formula is the
standard and most widely used formula for
defining celestial object brightness in astronomy.
It has the ability to span a wide range of brightness
and conform the ancient definition of stellar
brightness scale.
However, if the flux and the Signal to
Noise ratio are very low, the error will be large
and asymmetric due to the singularity in the
logarithmic scale at zero. This problem hinder the
study of the far and faint celestial objects, whereas
many new bigger telescopes has the ability to
record farther and fainter objects like quasars.
Sometimes observers fail to derive reasonably
accurate magnitude of detectable faint objects, due
to the weakness of the magnitude definition.
To overcome this problem Lupton et al.
(1999) propose a new definition of magnitude
using inverse hyperbolic sine function. The new
definition is compatible with the classical one but
avoids the singularity near zero and can provide
symmetric error for low signal to noise flux.
This new definition may increase the
ability of the observers to analyze faint objects
accurately. This also opens a new hope for the
observers to get good data from relatively faint
objects in a not so good environment. To test how
far the new definition can help the observers at the
Bosscha Observatory in getting good data in the
increasingly light polluted environment, we try to
apply it in a series of standard stars observation.
II. Lupton’s New Definition
Using Pogson formula, an object with
measurable flux f has a magnitude
m = mo − 2.5 log f
Where mo is a constant depends on the
environment, system and instruments. This
formula will yield unrealistically high number if f
were very low. According to that reason, Lupton
(1999) define the following formula:
⎛ f ⎞
μ = (mo − 2.5 log b' ) − a sinh −1 ⎜ ⎟
⎝ 2b' ⎠
Where a ≡ 2.5 log e = 1.08574, b′ = 1.042σ′, σ′ =
flux error of measurement, mo ≡ 2.5 log fo, fo is the
flux of zero magnitude star. Using this formula we
can use observed flux or count and observational
error directly to derived magnitude, provided mo is
known.
As observing conditions change, so do
measurement errors. However a precise error is
needed, the variance of μ is
a 2σ '2
Var( μ ) =
4b'2 + f 2
Lupton et.al. (1999) has shown that the
function agree well to Pogson formula for high
S/N ratio, linear near zero and has symmetric error
near zero flux.

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 International Conference on Mathematics and Natural Sciences (ICMNS)
III. Observation and Reduction
Observations were done at the Bosscha
Observatory using 45 cm reflector, GOTO
telescope equipped with an ST-8 CCD camera and
Bessel B and V filter. The data was reduced with a
standard procedure of dark subtraction, flat
fielding and aperture photometry.
In a half night we had record five
standard stars taken from Landolt’s (1248)
catalog. One of Landolt’s standard star (we use
SAO 121741 star) was observed at various air
masses during the night for estimating the slopes
of extinction correction for all bands. This
approach was taken since this standard stars have
colors nearly zero and hence, the color related
transformation coefficients could be neglected
(Henden & Kaitchuck 1990, Appendix G). Apart
from SAO 121471, we observed several stars with
different color index which each star was observed
through a limited range of air masses.
The data used in this work were obtained
on 16-17 July 2006. The observations were
performed with choosing bright stars near equator
from Landolt’s catalogue as its objects (table 1).
Table 1. (Object’s data)
Object Coordinate Catalogue’s
Star
(2002) magnitude
(SAO)
α (h m s) δ(0 ‘ “) B V
121741 16 37 45.87 00 02 24.65 8.809 8.046
120602 14 41 45.52 +00 23 34.5 9.210 8.160
140680 15 39 01.06 -00 18 41.4 8.060 7.510
122594 17 38 40.64 +04 20 09.8 9.000 9.040
122752 17 47 42.09 +04 56 22.7 9.740 8.910
Coordinate of stars (α and δ observatory)
were calculated from Landolt’s catalogue
(J2002.0). We implemented the approach by
Henden & Kaitchuck (1990, Appendix G and H),
which explains how to obtain the transformation
coefficients.
We now use the two methods of data
processing, Pogson and Lupton methods, which
have been used to calculate the three coefficients.
Firstly, in Pogson we use the uncorrected
instrumental magnitude directly determined by
IRAF (Image Reduction and Analysis Facility)
with DAOPHOT to measure entire image data.
The FWHM of standard star of each image was
examined first (with IMEXAM package) in order
to estimate its aperture and the intensity (counts)
of each stars that was calculated by identifying its
FWHM. Then we must calculate the extinction
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November 29-30, 2006, Bandung-Indonesia
correction coefficients (kλ and kcolor) for B and V
band from the main stars magnitude
measurements. Then we use the above results to
obtain the coefficients (βλ and γλ) for those bands.
The instrumental magnitudes were transformed to
standard magnitudes using transformation
formula: mλ = mλ − k λ F ( z ) + β λ Cλ + γ λ Whe
s
re m λs is standard magnitude, mλ is instrumental
magnitude, k λ is extinction coefficient, F (z ) is air
mass, β λ is color transformation coefficient,
C λ is standard color index, and γ λ is zero-point
constant. Color transformation coefficient,
standard color index, and zero-point constant were
determined by least square method.
Next, we use the Lupton formula in the
data proccesing. The fluxes produced from data
processing are then substitute into Lupton formula
to get their instrumental values. The next
procedures for obtaining the transformation
coefficients were similar to those procedures using
Pogson’s, by calculating the extinction first then
finding the transformation coefficients with least
square method.
Now the standardized magnitudes and
colors of any star measured in the same night can
be found by using the following constants:
table 2.constants of the transformation equations
(Pogson and Lupton)
Pogson Lupton
kλ (b) 1.5149±0.0597 1.2848±0.0551
kλ (v) 1.2497±0.0318 1.1563±0.0351
βλ -0.6682±0.3737 0.0272±0.0567
γλ 0.3576±0.2496 0.6679±0.0551
IV. Analysis
Extinction was found by observing one
star SAO 121471 for various value of air mass.
And the four remained stars were used to get the
transformation coefficients and zero-points
constant, except SAO 122594 because the quality
of the images was under sampled.
As a check on the quality of these
transformation equations, the magnitudes and
colors of the standard stars were computed and
compared to the known values from 2006
Astronomical Almanac. The calculation results are
shown in the table 3.
 International Conference on Mathematics and Natural Sciences (ICMNS)
Table 3
(Magnitude value from Lupton and Pogson)
Star mv Catalogue’s μv
(SAO) magnitude
120602 7.406 8.16 8.108
140680 7.649 7.510 7.496
The reasons of using the asinh function
are its similar behavior to logarithmic function in
high argument value but close to linear near zero.
Apart from proving consistency in the Lupton’s
formula behavior in the high S/N source of the
light, observation of these standard stars was
needed to facilitate the transformation to standard
system and to find the zero-point of any kind of
stars generally.
To check the consistency, the result was
used to calculate magnitude of some catalogued
stars and compare to their standard values. In table
3 we can see there are some difference between
catalog and observed values using Lupton or
Pogson formulas. The result are reasonably good
reminding the shortage of data points, except one
result in the Pogson Magnitude. The number of
standard stars used for determining the coefficient
only four, which are too little to yield very good
and reliable result, but despite many good weather,
stable photometric nights are very rare.
Instrumental problems, humidity, sometimes
hinder the continuous whole night standard
photometric observation.
Luptitude and Pogson’s both are function
of signal-to-noise ratio (x/σ). In Pogson system,
the errors are large and asymetric. But our objects
have high S/N ratio, so the asymetric errors cannot
be seen clearly. Variation of the night sky
brightness with air mass showed in figure 1.
Figure 1a
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November 29-30, 2006, Bandung-Indonesia
Figure 1b
Plot to determine extinction correction a) using
Pogson’s method b) using Lupton’s method
V. Conclusion
The new magnitude definition has been
tested. The test was done at the Bosscha
Observatory. It was difficult to get stable
photometric nights among the clear nights in the
dry seasons, However, despite the difficulties
some reasonable result still can be presented as
preliminary report which indicate that this work is
promising
The reasonably good result, despite the
small number of standard stars observed, indicate
that this work is promising to continue in the
future. A rather inconsistent result in the star SAO
120602, may be caused by small instability in the
sky condition.
This work also indicate that the
application of Lupton’s formula for determining
stars magnitude at the Bosscha Observatory is
quite promising, to observe fainter objects in the
worsening environment.
It is recommended that this observation is
redone when stable photometric nights occur in
the next dry season. Because the result of standard
stars observations is important for other
photometric observations, especially faint objects
observations.
V. References
1) R. H. Lupton, J. E. Gunn, A. S. Szalay, AJ
118, 1406 (1999)
2) Henden, Kaitchuck, Astronomical
Photometry, Van Nostrand Reinhold
Company Inc., New York, 1982
3) Landolt