[Aavso-photometry] Photometry and visual estimates of comets

[Wolfgang Renz]

I prepaped this post for an other group, but it might be
interesting for you too.


Visual estimates and CCD photometry on comets is more
laborious and complex than with stars. It usually also results
in much more noise in the data even with CCDs as the result
usually severely depends on the used aperture size. See e.g.:
Mark R. Kidger
AMATEUR CCD PHOTOMETRY OF COMETS; HOW TO
STANDARDISE DATA
<http://www.astrosurf.com/comets/tecnicas/MACE_photometry_proceeding.htm>
CCD Cometary Photometry; The Spanish Approach
<http://www.astrosurf.com/comets/tecnicas/Photometry_archivos/frame.htm>
and
Ignacio Ferrín
Cometary photometry Infinite aperture magnitudes IAM Version 5.0
<http://webdelprofesor.ula.ve/ciencias/ferrin/teaching/curveofgrowth.pdf>

For a short general intro see:
ICQ - Brief Introduction to Comet Photometry
http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/icq/cometphot.html ff

For basic methods used for visual estimates see:
ICQ - Visual Magnitude-Estimation Methods for Comets
http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/icq/ICQMM.html
1992ASPC...33..123F
Quantized Beyer's Method (QBM); to Estimate Accurately the
Brightness of Extended Objects and Stars - Ferrin, Ignacio
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1992ASPC...33..123F
<http://webdelprofesor.ula.ve/ciencias/ferrin/ICARUSPAPER/QBMethod.pdf>
Just take a look at the "official" ICQ keys for comet obs
and you know what I mean with more laborious:
ICQ - Keys to Codes used in Tabulated Observation Format
http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/icq/ICQKeys.html
ICQ - Recommended (and condemned) sources for stellar mags
http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/icq/ICQRec.html
ICQ - Observation Format for Data Contributed via E-mail
http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/icq/ICQFormat.html

For details on "classical" CCD photometry on comets see e.g.:
ICQ - CCD Photometry of Comets
http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/icq/CCDmags.html
Herman Mikuz, Bojan Dintinjana - CCD Photometry of Comets
http://astro.ago.uni-lj.si/comets/CCDPhot/iwca5.html ff
http://www.fiz.uni-lj.si/astro/comets/CCDPhot/iwca5.html ff
http://www.astrovid.com/technical_documents/Comet_Photometry.pdf

For details on the advanced AfRho evaluation on comets see:

CARA
http://www.cara-project.org/
Measuring comets with the Afrho quantity
http://www.cara-project.org/index.php?Itemid=28
Why to use optical filters
http://www.cara-project.org/index.php?Itemid=38
http://www.cara-project.org/images/images/filtri.jpg
CARA Procedures to perform AFrho measurements
http://comete.uai.it/fotometria/CARA%20Procedure_eng.htm

1984AJ.....89..579A - Comet Bowell 1980b (original Afrho paper)
Ahearn, M. F.; Schleicher, D. G.; Millis, R. L.; et al
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1984AJ.....89..579A

MACE (Meeting on Asteroids and Comets in Europe)
http://www.minorplanets.org/
MACE 2006
http://www.astrometrica.at/MACE/
Sostero, G., Guido E. - Some thoughts about cometary CCD photometry
http://www.astrometrica.at/MACE/abstracts.html#Sostero
http://www.unet.univie.ac.at/~a0008654/mace2006/Sostero.ppt

Afrho photometry software and papers:


Unfortunatly the CARA site seems to have dropped most of the
more advanced stuff including the WinAfRho and XAfRho down-
load pages.

http://perso.orange.fr/fkometes/pages/AfRho.html
<http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/trurl_pagecontent?lp=fr_en&trurl=http%3a%2f%2fperso.orange.fr%2ffkometes%2fpages%2fAfRho.html>
Laurent Jorda - La mesure du paramètre Af[Rho]
http://perso.orange.fr/fkometes/pages/AfRho.html
Laurent Jorda - Le parametre Af(Rho), traceur de l'activite cometaire
http://perso.orange.fr/fkometes/documents%20pdf/ohp111204.pdf
Laurent Jorda - Measuring the Af[Rho] parameter from radial profile
http://perso.orange.fr/fkometes/documents%20pdf/afrho_v01.pdf

Erik Bryssinck - komeetwaarnemingen CCD-fotometrie (AfRho, Winafrho)
<http://www.eisystems.be/astronomy/presentatie_afrho_astrofotografie_20070331_dia.pdf>

[astro-ph-0608180] Photometry of comet 9P-Tempel 1 during the
2004-2005 approach and the Deep Impact module impact
G. A. Milani, Gy. M. Szabó, G. Sostero, et al
http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0608180

The Spanish Approach:

Julio Castellano - FoCAs II (FOtometría Con Astrometrica)
http://astrosurf.com/cometas-obs/_Articulos/Focas/Focas.htm
(spanish)
http://www.astrosurf.com/cometas-obs/_Articulos/Focas_i/Focas_ixxx.htm
(Outdated english)
FoCAs: a software tool (the 10x10 multibox photometry method)
http://www.astrosurf.com/cometas-obs/ArtSoftUtil/Focas/FocasIng.htm

Clear skies
 Wolfgang

-- 
Wolfgang Renz, Karlsruhe, Germany
Rz.BAV = WRe.vsnet = RWG.AAVSO