[Aavso-photometry] Determination and use of BVRI transformation coefficients with Maxim DL

[Lionel Catalan]

Arne,

I have ordered your book at my university library, and it will be
coming through interlibary loan hopefully soon...

I am using Excel to do the transformations. I don't think that Maxim
can do these transformations. In fact, I don't know any software that
can apply colour transformation coefficients. Do they exist for
Windows?

I understand that the zero point is the same for the reference and
target star when doing differential photometry in Maxim. My question
is related to the use of transformation equations such as:

B-V = Qbv + Tbv (b-v)
V = v + Qv + T(B-V)

where v and b are "instrumental" magnitudes of a target star
determined by Maxim (after choosing a reference star). It seems to me
that the Qv to be used in the second equation will depend on the
particular reference star that I chose and may be different from the
Qv that I determined on the M67 field. Am I wrong about this?

Lionel



On Jan 12, 2008 10:46 AM, Lionel Catalan <lcatalan at lakeheadu.ca> wrote:
> Following the procedures outlined in the AAVSO CCD variable star
> manual, I determined the colour transformation coefficients (Tbv, Tvr,
> etc) and the terms Qbv, Qvr, etc for my system by taking sequential
> exposures of M67 with B, V, R and I filters. Since all the stars were
> in the same frame and the elevation was high, I did not include first
> order or second order extinction coefficients in my analysis. Maxim DL
> requires that I select a reference star and set its magnitude to
> calculate the magnitude of all the other stars in a given frame.
> Therefore, the determined numerical values of the terms Qbv, Qvr, Qri
> and Qvi are dependent on the particular reference star that I
> selected. If I now want to use my colour transformation coefficients
> for another star field, I assume that my values of Tbv, Tvr, etc would
> still be valid, but I wouldn't be able to use the same reference star,
> and therefore I would have to recalculate values of Qbv, Qvr, etc
> based on some standard star in the new field. Does this make Maxim DL
> innapropriate or at least inconvenient for using transformation
> coefficients?
>
It is clumsy, but ok.  You just select one of the sequence stars for
that new field as your "reference star", and use your Tbv etc.
with respect to the magnitudes that are returned by MaxIm.
In general, you can do the color-correction transformation on any
field, whether conditions are photometric or not.
When doing this kind of differential photometry, where you are
actually calculating something like

Vstar = (vins_star - vins_comp) + Vcomp

what happens is that the zeropoint is constant for both stars, and the
subtraction will remove it from the solution.  You can see the full
derivation in my old book, Astronomical Photometry.

Does MaxIm actually apply the coefficients, or are you using ancillary
software (like an Excel spreadsheet) to do the transformation?
Arne