Plans for Photometric Calibration of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

Session 16 - Astrometry.
Display session, Wednesday, January 07
Exhibit Hall,

[16.12] Plans for Photometric Calibration of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

J. A. Smith, T. A. McKay (U. Michigan), J. Brinkmann, R. McMillan (APO/NMSU), J. W. Briggs (U. Chicago and Yerkes Obs.), D. L. Tucker (FNAL), M. Doi, M. Hamabe (U. Tokyo), S. Ichikawa, M. Watanabe (NAOJ), T. Ichikawa (Tohoku Univ.), M. W. Richmond (Rochester Inst. Tech.), M. Fukugita (U. Tokyo and IAS), R. G. Kron (U. Chicago and Yerkes Obs.), J. Gunn (Princeton Univ.), C. M. Rockosi (U. Chicago), J. Annis, S. Kent (FNAL), A. Uomoto (JHU)

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) will generate deep (r=23.5) five color images of pi steradians in the Northern Galactic Cap. The calibration of this large imaging survey will be conducted by the Monitor Telescope (MT), a 24-inch Cassegrain reflector with a UV-sensitive CCD camera. The MT will first define the SDSS color system with observations of a set of > 100 standard stars. During the survey, the MT will monitor extinction in each of the five survey filters on an hourly basis. It will also track changes in the instrumental zeropoint by directly calibrating about 3the total survey area.

In this paper we will present the selected filter bands [Fukugita et al. 1996] and discuss the selected standard stars including; their location on the sky, (2) existing photometry and spectrophotometry and (3) the derived synthetic magnitudes. We will present our plan for calibrating these stars and ultimately the survey, including the role of the MT in nightly survey operations.

Program listing for Wednesday