Related papers: Deriving stellar properties from photometry: maxim…
Challenges inherent to high-resolution and high signal-to-noise data as well as model degeneracies can cause systematic biases in analyses of strong lens systems. In the past decade, the number of lens modeling methods has significantly…
Spectral modeling codes that estimate photometric redshifts (photo-$z$) are a powerful and often reliable method for determining redshifts of galaxies. However, there are notable instances where degeneracies in spectral energy distribution…
A new method for absolute polarimetric calibration of large telescopes is presented. The proposed method is highly accurate and is based on the calibration of a small sub-aperture, which is then extended to the full system by means of…
The precise measurement of the masses and radii of stars in eclipsing binary systems provides a window into uncertain processes in stellar evolution, especially mixing at convective boundaries. Recently, these data have been used to…
High precision differential astrometry assesses the positions, distances, and motions of celestial objects in relation to the stars. The focal plane of such space telescope must be calibrated with a precision down to the level of 1e-5 pixel…
We overview the current status of photometric analyses of images collected with Multi Conjugate Adaptive Optics (MCAO) at 8-10m class telescopes that operated, or are operating, on sky. Particular attention will be payed to resolved stellar…
As one of the best ground-based photometric dataset, Pan-STARRS1 (PS1) has been widely used as the reference to calibrate other surveys. In this work, we present an independent validation and re-calibration of the PS1 photometry using…
Starspots are thought to be regions of locally strong magnetic fields, similar to sunspots, and they can generate photometric brightness modulations. To deduce stellar and spot properties, such as spot emergence and decay rates, we…
Swift/UVOT has the capability to provide critical insight into the physics of the early afterglows of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). But without precise calibration of the UVOT to standard photometric systems, it is impossible to leverage late-…
Homographies -- a mathematical formalism for relating image points across different camera viewpoints -- are at the foundations of geometric methods in computer vision and are used in geometric camera calibration, image registration, and…
We review the systematic uncertainties that have plagued attempts to obtain high precision and high accuracy from ground-based photometric measurements using CCDs. We identify two main challenges in breaking through the 1% precision…
Optical polarimeters are typically calibrated using measurements of stars with known and stable polarization parameters. However, there is a lack of such stars available across the sky. Many of the currently available standards are not…
It takes years of effort employing the best telescopes and instruments to obtain high-quality stellar photometry, astrometry, and spectroscopy. Stellar evolution models contain the experience of lifetimes of theoretical calculations and…
The stellar haloes of galaxies can currently be studied either through observations of resolved halo stars or through surface photometry. Curiously, the two methods appear to give conflicting results, as a number of surface photometry…
In this paper we describe the routine photometric calibration of data taken with the VIRCAM instrument on the ESO VISTA telescope. The broadband ZYJHKs data are directly calibrated from 2MASS point sources visible in every VISTA image. We…
For many decades the determination of accurate fundamental parameters for stars (masses, radii, temperatures, luminosities, etc.) has mostly been the domain of eclipsing binary systems. That has begun to change as long-baseline…
Our knowledge about unresolved stellar systems comes from comparing integrated-light properties to SSP models. Therefore it is crucial to calibrate the latter as well as possible by integrated-light colors of clusters that have reliable…
We present an algorithm to photometrically calibrate wide field optical imaging surveys, that simultaneously solves for the calibration parameters and relative stellar fluxes using overlapping observations. The algorithm decouples the…
With high sensitivity imaging arrays, accurate calibration is essential to achieve the limits of detection of space observatories. One can simultaneously extract information about the scene being observed and the calibration properties of…
The complexity and accuracy of current and future precision cosmology observational campaigns has made it essential to develop an efficient technique for directly combining simulation and observational datasets to determine cosmological and…