Xguiphot can be used to do crowded-field aperture photometry of a single image, The following example shows one way of doing this kind of operation.
To begin the tutorial:
cl> xgex5
or
cl> unlearn xapphot
cl> epar xguiphot
... set images to "xapphot$data/globular.fits"
... set objects to ""
... set results to "default"
... set tutorial to "xapphot$doc/xgex5.html"
Note that the input objects list is intentionally set to null because we are going to generate the objects list internally.
The first step is to determine a good value for the ihwhmpsf, imindata, imaxdata, and fthreshold parameters used by the automatic star detection routine. To do this we need to first estimate the width of a typical stellar profile and the standard deviation of the background as follows:
1. move to the image display window
2. move to a bright isolated star
3. type the y keystroke to activate the model fitting panel
4. make a note of the value after Hw: which is the half-width at
half-max of the psf and the second value after Sky: which
is the sky sigma value
5. measure a few other stars by pointing at them with the
mouse and typing the x keystroke command, and note the
half-width at half-max and sky sigma values
6. decide on good values for the hwhmpsf and the sky sigma
7. dismiss the model fitting panel
A good value of ihhmpsf is ~1.5. The sky value and sigma are around 150 and 6. We note that the brightest stars are not saturated and that there are very few low valued pixels so we don't need to determine values for imaxdata and imindata for this image. We do need to make sure that the gain, readout noise, exposure time, filter, airmass, and ut are being read correctly from the image header. To enter the above information and make the necessary checks:
1. move to the List menu
2. select the "Impars pset ..." item
3. change ihwhmpsf to 1.5 and press CR
4. note that the ifilter value is undefined but ignore this for
the purpose of the tutorial
5. press Apply
6. press Dismiss
7. move to the List menu
8. press the left mouse button
9. select the "Findpars pset ..." item
10. change fthrehold from 320 to 24 which is about 4 * the sky sigma
determined above and press CR
11. press Apply
12. press Dismiss
Now we are ready to find objects. Move to the List menu and select the "Find list" item, or alternatively type the @ keystroke command in the image display window. Wait for a few moments and then examine the status line and the image display. The detection algorithm says it found 1562 objects in this image which looks pretty reasonable.
Now that we have the object list we are ready to do a quick check on the algorithm parameters before beginning processing.
First check the centering parameters as follows:
1. go to the Phot menu
2. select the "Cenpars pset ..." item
3. change calgorithm from "centroid1d" to "none" to avoid wandering
centers in this crowded field
3. change ctrmark from no to yes since this is a crowded field,
and we want to mark centers not apertures
4. press Apply
5. press Dismiss
Next check the sky fitting parameters as follows:
1. go to the Phot menu
2. select the "Skypars pset ..." item
3. set srannulus to 10 and swannulus to 5
4. make sure that smode is "concentric" and "sgeometry" is circular
5. set skymark to no to avoid marking sky apertures in this
crowded field
6. press Apply
7. press Dismiss
Finally check the photometry parameters as follows:
1. go to the Phot menu
3. select the "Photpars pset ..." item
3. set papertures to 3.0 which is close to the optimal value
of ~fwhmpsf
4. set photmark to no to avoid marking photometry apertures in
this crowded field
5. press Apply
6. press Dismiss
Now activate the plotting panel by selecting the "Photometry plots ..." item from the Results menu, or typing g in the image display window. Make a trial measurement by moving to a marked star and typing the . keystroke command, or press the left mouse button in the image display window and selection the "Measure nearest in list" item. Do the plots look ok ? Is the star marked correctly ? If so we are ready to measure the cluster.
1. dismiss the plotting panel because we do not want to make
plots of all 1652 stars!
2. go to the Files menu
3. press the left mouse button
4. select the "Enable logging" item
5. move to the the Phot menu
6. press the left mouse button
7. select the "Measure list" item
8. go to the Files menu
9. select the "Disable logging" item
Click on the Quit button to quit the tutorial.
The results will be in the file globular.fits.mag.1.