Homogeneous Photometry for Star Clusters and Resolved Galaxies. II. Photometric Standard Stars

Stars appearing in CCD images obtained over 224 nights during the course of 69 observing runs have been calibrated to the Johnson/Kron-Cousins BVRI photometric system defined by the equatorial standards of Landolt (1992, AJ, 104, 340). More than 15,000 stars suitable for use as photometric standards have been identified, where "suitable" means that the star has been observed five or more times during photometric conditions and has a standard error of the mean magnitude less than 0.02 mag in at least two of the four bandpasses, and shows no significant evidence of intrinsic variability. Many of these stars are in the same fields as Landolt's equatorial standards or Graham's (1982, PASP, 94, 244) southern E-region standards, but are considerably fainter. This enhances the value of those fields for the calibration of photometry obtained with large telescopes. Other standards have been defined in fields containing popular objects of astrophysical interest, such as star clusters and famous galaxies, extending Landolt-system calibrators to declinations far from the equator and to stars of sub-Solar chemical abundances. I intend to continue to improve and enlarge this set of photometric standard stars as more observing runs are reduced. The full current database of photometric indices is being made freely available via a site on the World-Wide Web, or by direct request to the author. Although the contents of the database will evolve in detail, at any given time it should represent the largest sample of precise BVRI broad-band photometric standards available anywhere.Comment: Accepted for July 2000 PAS

On the Photometric Consequences of Charge-Transfer Inefficiency in WFPC2

Charge-transfer effects in photometry with Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 aboard the Hubble Space Telescope are investigated by a comparison of WFPC2 observations with groundbased photometry for the Galactic globular clusters omega Centauri and NGC 2419. Simple numerical formulae describing the fraction of lost signal as functions of position on the detector, stellar brightness, and the diffuse sky brightness recorded in an image are presented, and the resulting corrections are compared to those previously derived by Whitmore & Heyer (1997, Instrument Science Report WFPC2 97-08). Significant lost-charge effects are seen that are proportional to both the Y coordinate (i.e., the number of shifts along the parallel register during readout) and the X coordinate (number of shifts along the serial register). The percentage of charge lost decreases as the star brightness or the diffuse sky brightness increases. Charge losses during the brief period when WFPC2 was operated at a temperature of -76 degrees C were approximately 85% greater, but apart from that no significant change in the charge transfer losses with time during the first 3.5 years of WFPC2's mission is evident, except possibly a weak effect for the very faintest star images. These results are quite similar to those of Whitmore & Heyer, which were based on a much smaller data set, but there are some differences in detail. Even with the present set of corrections, additional sources of calibration uncertainty which I am unable identify or characterize with the available data probably limit the external accuracy of photometry from WFPC2 to of order 1-2%.Comment: 5 tables, 4 figure

Faint star counts in the near-infrared

We discuss near-infrared star counts at the Galactic pole with a view to guiding the NGST and ground-based NIR cameras. Star counts from deep K-band images from the CFHT are presented, and compared with results from the 2MASS survey and some Galaxy models. With appropriate corrections for detector artifacts and galaxies, the data agree with the models down to K~18, but indicate a larger population of fainter red stars. There is also a significant population of compact galaxies that extend to the observational faint limit of K=20.5. Recent Galaxy models agree well down to K$\sim$19, but diverge at fainter magnitudes.Comment: 14 pages and 4 diagrams; to appear in PAS

Color-Magnitude Diagram Constraints on the Metallicities, Ages, and Star Formation History of the Stellar Populations in the Carina Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy

Victoria-Regina isochrones for $-0.4 \le$ [alpha/Fe] $\le +0.4$ and a wide range in [Fe/H], along with complementary zero-age horizontal branch (ZAHB) loci, have been applied to the color-magnitude diagram (CMD) of Carina. The color transformations that we have used have been "calibrated" so that isochrones provide excellent fits to the $[(B-V)_0,\,M_V]$-diagrams of M3 and M92, when well supported estimates of the globular cluster (GC) reddenings and metallicities are assumed. The adopted distance moduli, for both the GCs and Carina, are based on our ZAHB models, which are able to reproduce the old HB component (as well as the luminosity of the HB clump) of the dwarf spheroidal galaxy quite well --- even if it spans a range in [Fe/H] of ~ 1.5 dex, provided that [alpha/Fe] varies with [Fe/H] in approximately the way that has been derived spectroscopically. Ages derived here agree reasonably well with those found previously for the old and intermediate-age turnoff stars, as well as for the period of negligible star formation (SF) activity (~ 6-10 Gyr ago). CMD simulations have been carried out for the faintest turnoff and subgiant stars. They indicate a clear preference for SF that lasted several Gyr instead of a short burst, with some indication that ages decrease with increasing [Fe/H]. In general, stellar models that assume spectroscopic metallicities provide satisfactory fits to the observations, including the thin giant branch of Carina, though higher oxygen abundances than those implied by the adopted values of [alpha/Fe] would have favorable consequences.Comment: 15 pages, including 12 figures; accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

Fiducial Stellar Population Sequences for the u'g'r'i'z' System

We describe an extensive observational project that has obtained high-quality and homogeneous photometry for a number of different Galactic star clusters (including M 92, M 13, M 3, M 71, and NGC 6791) spanning a wide range in metallicity (-2.3<[Fe/H]<+0.4), as observed in the u'g'r'i'z' passbands with the MegaCam wide-field imager on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. By employing these purest of stellar populations, fiducial sequences have been defined from color-magnitude diagrams that extend from the tip of the red-giant branch down to approximately 4 magnitudes below the turnoff: these sequences have been accurately calibrated to the standard u'g'r'i'z' system via a set of secondary photometric standards located within these same clusters. Consequently, they can serve as a valuable set of empirical fiducials for the interpretation of stellar populations data in the u'g'r'i'z' system.Comment: 16 pages, 7 tables, 13 figures; accepted for publication in A

Reaction wheel fricton compensation using dither

A reaction-wheel stabilized spacecraft reduces attitude errors at wheel reversals by application of a dither component to the wheel torque command signal

Surface Brightness and Stellar Populations at the Outer Edge of the Large Magellanic Cloud: No Stellar Halo Yet

We present a high quality CMD for a 36'x 36' field located 8 degrees (7 kpc) from the LMC center, as well as a precise determination of the LMC surface brightness derived from the resolved stellar population out to this large galactocentric radius. This deep CMD shows for the first time the detailed age distribution at this position, where the surface brightness is V=26.5 mag/sq". At a radius R=474' the main sequence is well populated from the oldest turnoff at I=21.5 to the 2.5 Gyr turnoff at I=19.5. Beyond this radius, a relatively strong gradient in the density of stars with ages in the 2.5-4 Gyr range is apparent. There are some stars brighter and bluer than the main population, quite uniformly distributed over the whole area surveyed, which are well matched by a 1.5 Gyr isochrone and may be indicative of a relatively recent star formation, or merger, event. The surface brightness profile of the LMC remains exponential to this large galactocentric radius and shows no evidence of disk truncation. Combining the information on surface brightness and stellar population we conclude that the LMC disk extends (and dominates over a possible stellar halo) out to a distance of at least 7 kpc. These results confirm that the absence of blue stars in the relatively shallow off-center CMDs of dIrr galaxies is not necessarily evidence for an exclusively old stellar population resembling the halo of the Milky Way.Comment: ApJLett, in press 13 pages including 3 color figure

Time-Series BVI Photometry for the Globular Cluster NGC 6981 (M72)

We present new BVI photometry of the globular cluster NGC 6981 (M72), based mostly on ground-based CCD archive images. We present a new color-magnitude diagram (CMD) that reaches almost four magnitudes below the turn-off level. We performed new derivations of metallicity and morphological parameters of the evolved sequences, in good agreement with previous authors, obtaining a value of [Fe/H] ~ -1.50 in the new UVES scale. We also identify the cluster's blue straggler population. Comparing the radial distribution of these stars with the red giant branch population, we find that the blue stragglers are more centrally concentrated, as found in previous studies of blue stragglers in globular clusters. Taking advantage of the large field of view covered by our study, we analyzed the surface density profile of the cluster, finding extratidal main sequence stars out to r ~ 14.1 arcmin or about twice the tidal radius. We speculate that this may be due to tidal disruption in the course of M72's orbit, in which case tidal tails associated with the cluster may exist. We also take a fresh look at the variable stars in the cluster, recovering all previous known variables, including three SX Phoenicis stars, and adding three previously unknown RR Lyrae (1 c-type and 2 ab-type) to the total census. Finally, comparing our CMD with unpublished data for M3 (NGC 5272), a cluster with similar metallicity and horizontal branch morphology, we found that both objects are essentially coeval.Comment: Accepted for publication in A

The origin of the LMC stellar bar: clues from the SFH of the bar and inner disk

We discuss the origin of the LMC stellar bar by comparing the star formation histories (SFH) obtained from deep color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) in the bar and in a number of fields in different directions within the inner disk. The CMDs, reaching the oldest main sequence turnoffs in these very crowded fields, have been obtained with VIMOS on the VLT in service mode, under very good seeing conditions. We show that the SFHs of all fields share the same patterns, with consistent variations of the star formation rate as a function of time in all of them. We therefore conclude that no specific event of star formation can be identified with the formation of the LMC bar, which instead likely formed from a redistribution of disk material that occurred when the LMC disk became bar unstable, and shared a common SFH with the inner disk thereafter. The strong similarity between the SFH of the center and edge of the bar rules out significant spatial variations of the SFH across the bar, which are predicted by scenarios of classic bar formation through buckling mechanisms.Comment: MNRAS Letters, accepte