Author

Colin Packard

Date of Award

2021

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Natural Sciences

First Advisor

Ruppeiner, George

Area of Concentration

Physics

Abstract

Presented in this thesis is the theory of photometry, absolute photometry, the practical properties of CCDs, and the use of CCDs for photometry. In this thesis we concern ourselves with CCD absolute photometry in practice, and how to take into account the noise of the signal source, the extraneous signals and noises introduced through the usage of a CCD, the signal introduced from light pollution sky brightness, the signal filtered out through atmospheric extinction, and telescope/CCD system imperfections and non-uniformities. Throughout, uncertainties are propagated so that the uncertainties in eventually determined “catalog” magnitudes can be accurately determined. Finally, we provide a set of algorithms for CCD absolute photometry and the determination of associated uncertainties, generalized for use with any standard photometric system, accounting for all practicalities of observing from within Earth’s atmosphere and equipment imperfections.

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