We present our methods for generating a catalog of 7,000 synthetic images and
40,000 integrated spectra of redshift z = 0 galaxies from the Illustris
Simulation. The mock data products are produced by using stellar population
synthesis models to assign spectral energy distributions (SED) to each star
particle in the galaxies. The resulting synthetic images and integrated SEDs
therefore properly reflect the spatial distribution, stellar metallicity
distribution, and star formation history of the galaxies. From the synthetic
data products it is possible to produce monochromatic or color-composite
images, perform SED fitting, classify morphology, determine galaxy structural
properties, and evaluate the impacts of galaxy viewing angle. The main
contribution of this paper is to describe the production, format, and
composition of the image catalog that makes up the Illustris Simulation
Obsevatory. As a demonstration of this resource, we derive galactic stellar
mass estimates by applying the SED fitting code FAST to the synthetic galaxy
products, and compare the derived stellar masses against the true stellar
masses from the simulation. We find from this idealized experiment that
systematic biases exist in the photometrically derived stellar mass values that
can be reduced by using a fixed metallicity in conjunction with a minimum
galaxy age restriction.Comment: 21 pages, 17 figures, submitted to MNRAS. Comments welcom
