David Monet (US Naval Observatory)
Keywords: Astronomy, Astronomical Catalogs
Abstract:
As the AMOS Conference Abstract deadline closes, first light for the Pan-STARRS PS1 telescope and Gigapixel Camera (GPC1) is scheduled for August 23/24. Even in the pessimistic case that only a small portion of the field has good images, astrometric processing can commence. The key observables are (1) the astrometric uncertainty for a single measure of a single star bright enough to have its error set by seeing and not photon statistics, and (2) the size of the patch of sky over which the local seeing can be modeled by a low-order polynomial. As the data collections continue, we will improve our understanding of PS1 astrometry, but the first few First Light images will give us the preliminary data needed to update the astrometric expectations of the PS1 survey.
Date of Conference: September 12-15, 2007
Track: Astronomy and Astronomical Catalogs