[Aavso-photometry] Photometry software - need suggestions

[Stan Walker]

Hi Arne,

It's a long way to come for a Chardonnay but the project sounds interesting. 
Particularly looking out on a rain sodden part of northern NZ. I'll download 
the files tonight.

Regards,
Stan


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Arne Henden" <arne at aavso.org>
To: "Bruce J. Skelly" <Bruce at skelly.com>
Cc: <aavso-photometry at mira.aavso.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 11, 2009 1:26 PM
Subject: Re: [Aavso-photometry] Photometry software - need suggestions


> There have been many suggestions by people who obviously
> have used these programs.  If I may suggest, perhaps those
> people can attempt the "Stellar Project #2" challenge that I issued
> on February 18.  I'm finally returning to Boston after a bunch of
> back-to-back meetings, and intend to finish up the results from
> that Challenge, and I'd love to have many more participants.
> I've included the text from that Challenge below.
> Arne
> ----------------------
>
> Last year, I gave QX Pup as the first stellar project.  This unusual
> star/nebula has been fun to follow; if you look at its light curve,
> you can see that it is about at maximum light this season.
>
> Now, for Stellar Project 2 - a rainy night project!
> This is one to test your ability to use your photometry software.
> Like all real science, there is no one "truth", but the idea
> is to measure a set of images and produce the
> best light curves that you can.  You need to download:
>
> ftp://ftp.aavso.org/public/sro/stellar2/star_coords.txt
> ftp://ftp.aavso.org/public/sro/stellar2/v1412aql.zip
>
> where the 45MB zip file contains 30 1kx1k CCD images from Sonoita of
> the field of V1412 Aql, a possibly eclipsing variable discovered
> by Arlo Landolt. This will be the subject of a campaign in the near 
> future,
> but in anticipation of that campaign, I calibrated the field and
> obtained several nights of time-series photometry last year.
>
> Each of the images is a 4-minute exposure using the C14.  In the
> accompanying text file, I've identified 3 stars for you to measure
> (star 02 is V1412 Aql itself), and given you a rough idea of the
> magnitude and (B-V) color.  The object is to give me the best light
> curves you can of each of the 3 stars.  It may require adjusting
> aperture sizes, or using ensemble photometry, or psf-fitting or whatever;
> you get to choose.  To the best of my knowledge, none of the three
> is variable over the 3 hours of this time series, but I haven't checked
> closely.  I won't guarantee the orientation of the images; either
> pixel (1,1) will be the northeast corner, or 180 degrees rotated
> from that since this is a German equatorial mount.
>
> Rules:  give me three ASCII text files, one for each star.  Each
> file should have JD, magnitude, magnitude error for all 30 images.
> If you know how to transform, I'd suggest transforming the data as
> the images cover quite an airmass range, but let me know the
> details of what software you used, what settings
> you used, any other parameters of the reduction process in the
> accompanying email.  Mail me the results privately, so as to not
> clutter mail-list member mailboxes.  I'll inspect the results,
> and announce a "winner" in a few weeks.
>
> I'll buy the person who gets the lowest realistic noise and
> realistic errors for the three stars a beer (or other drink of
> their choice) at the next meeting that they attend.
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