Deep Galactic Survey of CCD Image

Goal

  • Create a Catalogue of the sources in a Kitt Peak 4m Telescopy CCD image, shown in header.
  • Include photometry data such as the apparent magnitude of each source.
  • Analyse the intensity distribution by determining the Sèrsic profile of each source.
  • All analysis in Python.

Global Algorithm

  • Determined background threshold from histogram of pixel brightness.
  • Manually masked the areas of extensive noise.
  • Found pixel with max brightness and add it to the catalogue.
  • Masked a circular area around it to not count the source twice.
  • Repeated until all of the image was masked.

Local Algorithm

  • Used a fixed aperture approach to find the relative magnitude of each source.
  • Created local reference annulus to meaningfully subtract background illumination.
  • 1D curve fit determined the intensity distribution and Sérsic Profile.

Key Words

CCD Image Analysis

Python

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