http://arxiv.org/abs/1712.06753
Time-series photometry taken from ground-based facilities is improved with the use of comparison stars due to the short timescales of atmospheric-induced variability. However, the sky is bright in the thermal infrared (3-5 um), and the correspondingly small fields-of-view of available detectors make it highly unusual to have a calibration star in the same field as a science target. Here we present a new method of obtaining differential photometry by simultaneously imaging a science target and a calibrator star, separated by <2 amin, onto a 10×10 asec field-of-view detector. We do this by taking advantage of the LBT’s unique binocular design to point the two co-mounted telescopes apart and simultaneously obtain both targets in three sets of observations. Results indicate that the achievable scatter in Ls-band (3.3 um) is at the percent level for bright targets, and possibly better with heavier sampling and characterization of the systematics.
E. Spalding, P. Hinz, A. Skemer, et. al.
Wed, 20 Dec 17
49/83
Comments: N/A