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Absolute Flux Calibration of Stars; Calibration of the Reference Telescope

Published

Author(s)

Allan W. Smith, John T. Woodward IV, Colleen A. Jenkins, Steven W. Brown, Keith R. Lykke

Abstract

Absolute stellar photometry is based on 1970s terrestrial measurements of the star Vega with instruments calibrated using the Planckian radiance from a Cu fixed-point blackbody. Significant advances in absolute radiometry have been made in the last 30 years that offer the potential to improve both terrestrial and space-based absolute stellar photometry. These advances include the development of detector-based radiometry utilizing spectrally tunable laser sources and improved atmospheric transmittance modelling and characterization. We describe the applications of these new technologies for ground-based spectral irradiance measurements of standard stars at wavelengths ranging from 0.35 mm to 1.7 mm.
Citation
Metrologia
Volume
46

Keywords

calibration, lasers, radiometry, standard stars

Citation

Smith, A. , Woodward, J. , Jenkins, C. , Brown, S. and Lykke, K. (2009), Absolute Flux Calibration of Stars; Calibration of the Reference Telescope, Metrologia, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=900900 (Accessed March 19, 2024)
Created June 2, 2009, Updated February 19, 2017