Various exploratory activities related to optical astronomy have become easier thanks to popularization of astronomical observation equipment and the establishment of many observatories. However, while it is possible to conduct astronomical observatio...
Various exploratory activities related to optical astronomy have become easier thanks to popularization of astronomical observation equipment and the establishment of many observatories. However, while it is possible to conduct astronomical observation in the educational arena including schools, analytic exploration for the observed celestial body is still a difficult problem compared to observation. Therefore, this study has its purpose in investigating photometry ability of DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex), which is widely used and easily manipulated as observing equipment to acquire astronomic image and examining whether it can be used for exploratory activities or research.
Astronomic observation for analysis mainly uses CCD (Charge Couple Device) cameras for observing celestial objects. For this device is significantly expensive, and it requires relatively a lot of preliminary knowledge on the observation equipment, it may be burdensome to use CCD cameras for astrophotographs because of cost and manipulation problems. By comparison, DSLR cameras are easy to handle without such difficulties, so they are widely used by amateur astronomers in obtaining celestial images. However, they are only used to simply gain good astronomic observation images and not used for data analysis.
Thus, if sufficient possibilities for celestial photometry can be found in DSLR cameras, it’s thought to be possible to conduct astronomic observation and observation data analysis activities through a slight cost and easy control in a variety of education circumstances.
The photometric possibility of DSLR cameras is identified through the following two data analyses after observing NGC 752 open cluster.
First, atmospheric extinction coefficient is determined through DSLR cameras. The stars which did not show difference of luminosity in observation images were selected, and the change of the level of brightness according to the effect of atmosphere was identified through tendency of the brightness (level) of the stars to change depending on the thickness of the atmosphere. The average standard deviation on trend line obtaining the atmospheric extinction coefficient was in the level from 0.01 to 0.03, proving that the change of the level may be measured significantly evenly through photometry. After deciding the atmospheric extinction coefficient, the level of the stars which eliminated the atmospheric effects was determined by using the mean atmospheric extinction coefficient.
Second, the observed level and standard conversion interaction formula of color index were obtained. Generally, there occurs a certain difference between the level of atmospheric extinction correction and the known level of stars because of complex characteristics of the used telescopes, filter and photometric equipment and conditions. Although it was the relationship of the levels in which such difference was not eliminated, it’s found that the level of the stars measured in photometry and the known level had great correlations by using DSLR cameras. For the standard deviation of photometric level on the level conversion formula, R was 0.213, G was 0.125, and B was 0.238, showing the level difference of 0.1~0.2 level, and for the bright stars within the level 2 among the photometric stars, the standard deviation values on the level difference from conversion formula revealed the differences of average 0.08 level in all of images in G and B wavelength areas. In the color index, however, the correlations were not that great, identifying that the correlations of the stars with little color index (with high temperature) were great but the ones of the stars with large color index (with low temperature) were not great.
It was confirmed that DSLR might function enough as a photometric device in this study. It is desirable that various astronomic observations will be carried out by using DSLR and some ways to use it for education fields or research purpose may be suggested.