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Register a new userSynthetic RGB photometry of bright stars: definition of the standard photometric system and UCM library of spectrophotometric spectra
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Although the use of RGB photometry has exploded in the last decades due to the advent of high-quality and inexpensive digital cameras equipped with Bayer-like color filter systems, there is surprisingly no catalogue of bright stars that can be used for calibration purposes. Since due to their excessive brightness, accurate enough spectrophotometric measurements of bright stars typically cannot be performed with modern large telescopes, we have employed historical 13-color medium-narrow-band photometric data, gathered with quite reliable photomultipliers, to fit the spectrum of 1346 bright stars using stellar atmosphere models. This not only constitutes a useful compilation of bright spectrophotometric standards well spread in the celestial sphere, the UCM library of spectrophotometric spectra, but allows the generation of a catalogue of reference RGB magnitudes, with typical random uncertainties $sim 0.01$ mag. For that purpose, we have defined a new set of spectral sensitivity curves, computed as the median of 28 sets of empirical sensitivity curves from the literature, that can be used to establish a standard RGB photometric system.
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BRITE-Constellation (where BRITE stands for BRIght Target Explorer) is an international nanosatellite mission to monitor photometrically, in two colours, the brightness and temperature variations of stars generally brighter than mag(V) ~ 4, with precision and time coverage not possible from the ground. The current mission design consists of six nanosats (hence Constellation): two from Austria, two from Canada, and two from Poland. Each 7 kg nanosat carries an optical telescope of aperture 3 cm feeding an uncooled CCD. One instrument in each pair is equipped with a blue filter, the other with a red filter. Each BRITE instrument has a wide field of view (~24 degrees), so up to about 15 bright stars can be observed simultaneously, sampled in 32 pixel x 32 pixel sub-rasters. Photometry of additional fainter targets, with reduced precision but thorough time sampling, will be possible through onboard data processing. The BRITE sample is dominated by the most intrinsically luminous stars: massive stars seen at all evolutionary stages, and evolved medium-class stars at the very end of their nuclear burning phases. The goals of BRITE-Constellation are to (1) measure p- and g-mode pulsations to probe the interiors and ages of stars through asteroseismology; (2) look for varying spots on the stars surfaces carried across the stellar disks by rotation, which are the sources of co-rotating interaction regions in the winds of the most luminous stars, probably arising from magnetic subsurface convection; and (3) search for planetary transits.
Although a catalogue of synthetic RGB magnitudes, providing photometric data for a sample of 1346 bright stars, has been recently published, its usefulness is still limited due to the small number of reference stars available, considering that they are distributed throughout the whole celestial sphere, and the fact that they are restricted to Johnson V < 6.6 mag. This work presents synthetic RGB magnitudes for ~15 million stars brighter than Gaia G = 18 mag, making use of a calibration between the RGB magnitudes of the reference bright star sample and the corresponding high quality photometric G, G_BP and G_RP magnitudes provided by the Gaia EDR3. The calibration has been restricted to stars exhibiting -0.5 < G_BP - G_RP < 2.0 mag, and aims to predict RGB magnitudes within an error interval of $pm 0.1$ mag. Since the reference bright star sample is dominated by nearby stars with slightly undersolar metallicity, systematic variations in the predictions are expected, as modelled with the help of stellar atmosphere models. These deviations are constrained to the $pm 0.1$ mag interval when applying the calibration only to stars scarcely affected by interstellar extinction and with metallicity compatible with the median value for the bright star sample. The large number of Gaia sources available in each region of the sky should guarantee high-quality RGB photometric calibrations.
We present Johnson-Kron-Cousins BVRI photometry of 228 candidate spectrophotometric standard stars for the external (absolute) flux calibration of Gaia data. The data were gathered as part of a ten-year observing campaign with the goal of building th
e external grid of flux standards for Gaia and we obtained absolute photometry, relative photometry for constancy monitoring, and spectrophotometry. Preliminary releases of the flux tables were used to calibrate the first two Gaia releases. This paper focuses on the imaging frames observed in good sky conditions (about 9100). The photometry will be used to validate the ground-based flux tables of the Gaia spectrophotometric standard stars and to correct the spectra obtained in non-perfectly photometric observing conditions for small zeropoint variations. The absolute photometry presented here is tied to the Landolt standard stars system to $simeq$1 per cent or better, depending on the photometric band. Extensive comparisons with various literature sources show an overall $simeq$1 per cent agreement, which appears to be the current limit in the accuracy of flux calibrations across various samples and techniques in the literature. The Gaia photometric precision is presently of the order of 0.1 per cent or better, thus various ideas for the improvement of photometric calibration accuracy are discussed.
We present precise photometry and spectroscopy for 23 candidate spectrophotometric standard white dwarfs. The selected stars are distributed in the Northern hemisphere and around the celestial equators and are all fainter than r ~ 16.5 mag. This network of stars, when established as standards, together with the three Hubble Space Telescope primary CALSPEC white dwarfs, will provide a set of spectrophotometric standards to directly calibrate data products to better than 1%. These new faint standard white dwarfs will have enough signal-to-noise ratio in future deep photometric surveys and facilities to be measured accurately while still avoiding saturation in such surveys. They will also fall within the dynamic range of large telescopes and their instruments for the foreseeable future. This paper discusses the provenance of the observational data for our candidate standard stars. The comparison with models, reconciliation with reddening, and the consequent derivation of the full spectral energy density distributions for each of them is reserved for a subsequent paper.
We describe two ground based observing campaigns aimed at building a grid of approximately 200 spectrophotometric standard stars (SPSS), with an internal ~1% precision and tied to Vega within ~3%, for the absolute flux calibration of data gathered by Gaia, the ESA astrometric mission. The criteria for the selection and a list of candidates are presented, together with a description of the survey strategy and the adopted data analysis methods. We also discuss a short list of notable rejected SPSS candidates and difficult cases, based on identification problems, literature discordant data, visual companions, and variability. In fact, all candidates are also monitored for constancy (within pm5 mmag, approximately). In particular, we report on a CALSPEC standard, 1740346, that we found to be a delta Scuti variable during our short-term monitoring (1-2 h) campaign.
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