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The Rise and Improvement of Infrared Photometry

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Book cover Astronomical Photometry

Part of the book series: Astrophysics and Space Science Library ((ASSL,volume 373))

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Abstract

Broad-band ground-based infrared photometry has been carried on ever since Harold Johnson adopted wide-band filters that only loosely matched the Earth’s atmospheric windows. Here we describe the “evolution” of filters to produce improved precision, and suggest why it has taken so long to reach the high precision that this spectral region can provide. We further describe the design of new filters that achieve this result, and the trials that were undertaken to demonstrate their superiority. Finally, we discuss the price to be paid for the improved precision, in the form of lower throughput, and why it should be paid: to achieve not only higher precision (i.e., improved signal-to-noise ratio), but also lower extinction, and thus higher accuracy in extra-atmospheric magnitudes.

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Acknowledgements

The support of the Physics & Astronomy Department of the University of Calgary has been critical to the success of the IRWG experiments and results. It is a pleasure to thank undergraduate astrophysics majors in the senior astrophysics laboratory course that EFM taught for more than a decade, especially the summer assistants who were recruited from that course, among whom were: Kyle Degenhardt, Kerry Dubray, Danielle Fraser, Christopher Ostrowski, Jon Ramsey, Russell Shanahan, Caleb Sundstrom, and Christopher Winder, for conscientious assistance with observations and data reduction. Dr. Philip Langill, then Resident Astronomer at the RAO, and Dr. Alfredo Louro also assisted with data acquisition. Over the past decade, Michael Williams improved telescope software and helped train observers. RAO technician, Frederick Babott maintained all the RAO instrument systems, including the infrared, since their inception; most recently, that work was taken over by James Pike. Much of the work described here was supported by grants to EFM from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and the National Research Council of Canada, which, as always, are gratefully acknowledged. This paper is No. 78 in the Publications of the RAO reprint series.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. RAO, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive, NW, Calgary, AB, Canada, T2N 1N4

    E. F. Milone

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  1. E. F. Milone
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  2. Andrew T. Young
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Correspondence to E. F. Milone .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Physics & Astronomy, University of Calgary, University Drive NW., 2500, Calgary, T2N 1N4, Alberta, Canada

    Eugene F. Milone

  2. University of Bruxelles, Pleinlaan 2, Bruxelles, 1050, Belgium

    C. Sterken

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Milone, E.F., Young, A.T. (2011). The Rise and Improvement of Infrared Photometry. In: Milone, E., Sterken, C. (eds) Astronomical Photometry. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 373. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8050-2_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8050-2_6

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