Data Reduction and Analysis

Astrolab CCD Images and Formats

• Astrolab CCD Images

Image Display and Analysis

• GAIA is a powerful image display and analysis tool. It provides the usual facilities of image display tools, plus more astronomically useful ones such as aperture & optimal photometry, contouring, source detection, surface photometry, arbitrary region analysis, celestial coordinate readout, calibration and modification, grid overlays, blink comparison, defect patching and the ability to query on-line (WWW) catalogues.
  • Basic analysis using GAIA
  • Measuring instrumental magnitudes with GAIA
• DS9 is another useful image display and analysis tool.

Basic Reduction Techniques

• Flat fielding
• Image stacking
• Subtracting dark frames for older archive DRACO, East-14 and West-12 images

Astrometry

• Astrometry references and notes
• Astrometric solutions [pdf]
• Herbert Raab's paper on "Detecting and Measuring faint Point Sources with a CCD" (local copy)
• WCSTools is a package of programs and a library of utility subroutines for setting and using the world coordinate systems (WCS) in the headers of the most common astronomical image formats, e.g. FITS, to relate image pixels to sky coordinates.

Photometry

• Basic photometry theory
• How to get good data
• There are local scripts that help with the photometry.
• Chapter 8 (Photometry) of The Handbook of Astronomical Image Processing by Berry and Burnell
• Observing the Universe (ed. Andrew Norton) - Chapters 5 and 6 deal with Reducing CCD data and Photometry
• Example of how to characterise the performance of a CCD system.
• Eric Hayashi's Photometry for Dummies (not available at all good bookshops)
• Filter Systems and Information
• Photometry errors, (see e.g. John Simonetti's short article (local copy)

Orbits

• Find_Orb     can take a set of observations of an asteroid or comet and find the corresponding orbit.
• Orbits and orbital determination references
• Osculations in minor planet orbits (and the ECON routine)

General Reference Material

• Observing the Universe by Andrew Norton
• The Handbook of Astronomical Image Processing by Berry and Burnell
• CCD astronomy by Christian Buil

Positions, Charts, Images, Databases