A conference, hosted by the Space Telescope - European CoordinatingFacility, on

Astronomy from Large Databases:Scientific Objectives and Methodological

Approacheswill be held in Garching from 12 to 14 October 1987.

Topics will include statistical analysis of complex databases, object classifica­tion problems, astrophysics from large data collections, together with state ofthe art reviews of astronomical database technology and expert system applica­tions.

The Proceedings will be published by ESO.Further information may be obtained from F. Murtagh, ST-ECF, ESO, Karl­

Schwarzschild-Str. 2, 0-8046 Garching bei München, FRG.

astrophysics. Further details may be ob­tained from Vito Oi Gesu or from FionnMurtagh.

The foregoing trends serve to illus­trate how "computational astronomy"has now become solidly established asa subdiscipline of importance in as­tronomy and astrophysics, closelyfollowing in the footsteps of its sister­subdiscipline, image processing.

References1. V. Di Gesü, L. Scarsi, P. Crane, J. H. Fried­

man and S. Levialdi (eds.) (1984): DataAnalysis in Astronomy, Plenum Press, NewYork.

2. V. Di Gesü, L. Scarsi, P. Crane, J. H. Fried­man and S. Levialdi (eds.) (1986): DataAnalysis in Astronomy 11, Plenum Press,New York.

3. F. Murtagh and A. Heck (1986): An anno­tated bibliographical catalogue of mul­tivariate statistical methods and of theirastronomical applications (magnetic tape).

Astronomy and Astrophysics SupplementSeries (in press); ESO Scientific PreprintNo. 465 (Sept. 1986).

4. F. Murtagh and A. Heck (1987): Multivari-

ate Data Analysis, D. Reidel, Dordrecht.5. E.J. Rolfe (ed.) (1983): Statistical Methods

in Astronomy, European Space AgencySpecial Publication 201 (270 pp.).

Crowded Field Photometry Using EFOSC and ROMAFOTK. J. MIGHELL, Kapteyn Observatory, Roden, The Nether/ands

EFOSC

The ESO Faint Object Spectrographand Camera (EFOSC), instrument of theESO 3.6-m telescope, can be used as avery efficient CCO camera for wide­band photometry of crowded stellarfields. EFOSC was designed to matchthe RCA SIO 501 EX CCO (320 x 512pixels, 30 x 30 microns pixel size). Eachpixel corresponds to 0.675 arcsec andthe total field of view is 3.6 x 4.7 arcmi­nutes (1). Using the instrument in directimaging mode, the limiting magnitude ofa 15 minute exposure with seeing ofFWHM = 1.3 arcseconds in the V bandis about 25.5 for a signal-to-noise ratioof 3 (2).

A typical EFOSC field of the SmallMagellanic Cloud will yield hundreds tothousands of stars in less than five mi­nutes! In good seeing conditions thecentral cores of star images will be par­tially undersampled due to the 0.675arcsecond per pixel scale. The combi­nation of crowded stellar fields with par­tially undersampled data presents achallenge to the astronomer who wishesto do accurate stellar photometry withEFOSC data.

DAOPHOT

In March 1986 I visited ESO Garchingto see if the photometric reductionpackage OAOPHOT (3) was suitable foruse with EFOSC data and CCO data

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from the ESO 2.2-m telescope. Usingboth real and artificial data, I foundOAOPHOT to be potentially usefulfor the 2.2-m data (0.35 arcsecond perpixel) and totally inadequate for the lessweil sampled EFOSC data (0.675 arc­second per pixel). The results of this trialexperiment do not bode weil for theability of OAOPHOT to work adequatelywith data from the Hubble Space Tele­scope.

ELiA

ELiA (4) was developed at the Obser­vatory of Rome specifically to do photo­metric reduction in crowded stellarfields - in particular globular clusters. Ivisited the Observatory of Rome in Oc­tober 1985 and reduced some EFOSCimages of an extremely crowded field inthe SMC. Although the image was quitecomplex, ELiA made excellent fits toover 1,400 stars. ELiA employs a non­linear least squares fitting algorithmwhich was found to be remarkably suc­cessful at ignoring cosmic rays andother image defects.

ROMAFOT and the PersonalAstronomical Work Station

At the Rome Observatory, ELiAserves as a complete image processingsystem. Thus there are programmes toread and write FITS tapes, programmesto flat-field images, programmes to plot

data, etc. By using the ESO MunichImage Oata Analysis System (MIOAS)as my main image processing system,I only needed to use the few program­mes which actually did photometric re­duction. I have converted these pro­grammes to run on VAX computers andhave renamed the package ROMAFOT.

I have also written a C language pro­gramme "Personal Astronomical WorkStation" (PAWS) which effectively trans­forms a standard Commodore Amigapersonal computer into a completeMIOAS work station consisting of emu­lations for (1) a VT-1 00 terminal, (2) a HPgraphics terminal and (3) a OeAnza im­age display. By replacing the Tektronixterminal that ELiA previously requiredwith an Amiga running PAWS, I havebeen able to substantially improve theperformance of ROMAFOT. By judi­ciously using coloured images (insteadof shades of green), ROMAFOT hasbeen improved to make it easier for theuser to quickly produce more accurateresults. The combination of ROMAFOTwith MIOAS provides the astronomerwith a very powerful tool to do accuratephotometric reduction of crowded stel­lar fields.

ROMAFOT/MIDAS Features andAbilities

• Reads FITS tapes• Automatic location of most stars on a

eco image

Storm Petersen and Astronomy

Figure 1.

• Examination of each stellar image tocheck for image quality, potentialblending and missed fainter stars

• Fast nonlinear least squares fittingroutines that allow up to five blendedcomponents to be fitted simultane­ously

• Accurate and believable error esti­mates are determined for all fitted pa­rameters

• Examination of the final fits by dis­playing the original data and residuals

• A proficient user can process 500 to1,000 stars per day (depending on thecrowding complexity of the fjeld)

• Transformation of coordinates fromone CCO frame to the system ofanother frame

• Transformation of instrumental mag­nitudes to a standard photometricsystem

• Plots the results on a standard HRdiagram

• Artificial stars can be randomly in­serted into the data at known fluxlevels to allow the user to find thesystematic measurement errors.A visual example of how ROMAFOT

and MIOAS can be used to do photo-

metric reduction in crowded stellarfields is shown in Figure 1 (all plots weremade with PAWS).

Figure 1a shows a gray-scale repre­sention of a crowded stellar field nearthe centre of Carina, a dwarf spheroidalgalaxy in the Local Group. The datawere collected with the ESO 3.6-m tele­scope using the EFOSC instrument withseeing of FWHM = 1.35 arcseconds inthe V band. The integration time was 30seconds. The subfield is 16.9 by 16.9arcseconds in size. The intensity scale islinear with black representing the max­imum and white representing theminimum intensity.

Figure 1b shows the same subfield inthe form of a three-dimensional plot.The brightest star has a flat core be­cause it was clipped for the plot toshow better the fluctuation of thebackground. The second highest peakis composed of two closely spacedstars.

Figure 1c shows the residual field aft­er all five stars were fitted. The visualmagnitudes of the stars are 19.16± 0.01, 20.56 ± 0.05, 21.38 ± 0.11,21.03 ± 0.06, 22.00 ± 0.16, respec­tively. The peaks of the two closelyspaced stars (V = 20.31, V = 21.13) areseparated by only 2.12 pixels. The fullwidth at half maximum (FWHM) forthese data is only 2.00 pixels, so thesetwo stars are just barely resolved.

The above example shows howEFOSC can be used to obtain useful

Robert Storm Petersen (1882 -1949)started his career as a butcher, but be­came a symbol of arch-Oanish humourduring his lifetime. Although Stürm P.(as he is known by his countrymen)

'The police now col/aborates with the as­tronomers to determine the exact time whenbicycle lights must be lit. '

photometry for many faint stars withshort exposures. The ability to reach avisual magnitude of 22 in just 30 sec­onds will be very useful to those as­tronomers who would like to determinethe colour-magnitude diagrams ofglobular clusters and stars in the Galaxyand nearby Local Group galaxies.

The Future of ROMAFOT

Roberto Buonanno (Observatory ofRome), Rein Warmeis (ESO) and I will beworking in the next few months to offi­cially implement the ROMAFOT pack­age as apart of MIOAS. The exact formof the MIOAS version of ROMAFOT hasyet to be finalized but it will probably bevery similar to the system I have de­scribed above.

References

(1) O'Odorico, S., Oekker, H., "The Five Ob­serving Modes of EFOSC, the ESO FaintObject Spectrograph and Camera Oe­signed Around a CCO Oetector".

(2) The Messenger 41, p. 26, 1985.(3) Stetson, P. B., "OAOPHOT User's Manu­

al", Dominion Astrophysical Observatory,Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics, 5071West Saanich Road, Victoria, British Col­umbia V8X 4M6, Canada.

(4) Buonanno, R., Corsi, C. E., Oe Baise,G. A., Ferraro, 1., 1979, in Image Process­ing in Astronomy, eds. G. Sedmak, M.Capaccioli, and R.J. Allen, Trieste, Italy,p.554.

wrote prolifically, he is more famous forhis drawings which appeared regularlyin Oanish newspapers from 1905 to hisdeath. Many of the early drawings dealtwith social injustice, but he soon foundhis own, less offensive way of expres­sion. A museum dedicated to his workshas been opened in Copenhagen andalso exhibits many of his cartoons.Many of them concern the exact sci­ences which Storm P. approached withasound measure of down-to-the-earthscepticism. But his dry humour alwaystreated members of the astronomicalprofession and other employees of thestate with due reverence ...

EDITOR'S NOTEThe information about the bright

supernova 1987A in the LMC whichis brought on the following pageswas received on March 2,1987. Thepublication of this issue of theMessenger was delayed in order toinciude a first overview of the excit­ing results.

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