Related papers: A New Procedure for the Photometric Parallax Estim…
Results of comparison of Gaia DR2 parallaxes with data derived from a combined analysis of 2MASS (Two Micron All-Sky Survey), SDSS (Sloan Digital Sky Survey), GALEX (Galaxy Evolution Explorer), and UKIDSS (UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey)…
A new intrinsic-colour calibration ($(b$--$y)_{o}$--$\beta$) is presented for the $uvby$--$\beta$ photometric system, making use of re-calibrated Hipparcos parallaxes and published reddening maps. This new calibration for…
A significant amount of data on the historical and current behaviour of variable stars is derived from visual estimates of brightness using a set of comparison stars. To make optimum use of this invaluable collection one must understand the…
We present a new set of photometric transformations for red stars observed with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) 0.5-m Photometric Telescope (PT) and the SDSS 2.5-m telescope at the Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico. Nightly PT…
We present absolute trigonometric parallaxes and relative proper motions for three members of the Pleiades star cluster, obtained with HST's Fine Guidance Sensor 1r, a white-light interferometer. We estimate spectral types and luminosity…
I show that the standard microlensing technique to measure the angular radius of a star using color/surface-brightness relations can be inverted, via late-time proper motion measurements, to calibrate these relations. The method is…
Stellar distances constitute a foundational pillar of astrophysics. The publication of 1.47 billion stellar parallaxes from Gaia is a major contribution to this. Yet despite Gaia's precision, the majority of these stars are so distant or…
Uniform and accurate photometric calibration plays an important role in the current and next-generation wide-field imaging surveys. Herein, we review the modern photometric calibration methods, including the classic standard star method,…
Photometric calibration to 5% accuracy is frequently needed at arbitrary celestial locations; however, existing all-sky astronomical catalogs do not reach this accuracy and time consuming photometric calibration procedures are required. I…
We present an M_V absolute magnitude calibration including the B-V colour and [Fe/H] metallicity for the red clump stars in the globular and open clusters with a wide range of metallicities: M_V =…
At present, the precision of deep ultraviolet photometry is somewhat limited by the dearth of faint ultraviolet standard stars. In an effort to improve this situation, we present a uniform catalog of eleven new faint (u sim17) ultraviolet…
In this study, colour-magnitude relations (CMRs) for DA-type white dwarfs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) photometric system were investigated. For this purpose, the SDSS data for 20,247 white dwarf stars, as provided in the study by…
We use theoretical models to establish a tight relationship for the absolute magnitudes of RR Lyrae stars as a function of their periods and Stroemgren pseudo-color c_0 = (u-v)_0 - (v-b)_0. Applying this to RR Lyr, and comparing the result…
In this paper we test the astrometric precision of VLT/FORS2 observations using a serie of CCD frames taken in Galactic bulge area. A special reduction method based on symmetrization of reference fields was used to reduce the atmospheric…
We present deep VI photometry of stars in the globular cluster M5 (NGC 5904) based on images taken with the Hubble Space Telescope. The resulting color-magnitude diagram reaches below V ~ 27 mag, revealing the upper 2-3 magnitudes of the…
We review seven methods of measuring the absolute magnitude M_V of RR Lyrae stars in light of the Hipparcos mission and other recent developments. We focus on identifying possible systematic errors and rank the methods by relative immunity…
We report a method of correcting a near-infrared (0.90-1.35 $\mu$m) high-resolution ($\lambda/\Delta\lambda\sim28,000$) spectrum for telluric absorption using the corresponding spectrum of a telluric standard star. The proposed method uses…
The astrometric calibration of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey is described. For point sources brighter than r ~ 20 the astrometric accuracy is 45 milliarcseconds (mas) rms per coordinate when reduced against the USNO CCD Astrograph Catalog,…
I study the importance of the accurate calibration of photometric systems in order to produce meaningful comparisons between the observed colors + magnitudes and model SEDs. Possible sources of errors are discussed and two examples are…
Hipparcos parallax measurements of stars in the Pleiades notoriously result in a cluster distance of 118 pc; ~10% shorter than the `classical' results of MS-fitting. In an earlier paper we developed a purely empirical MS-fitting method to…