Monday, July 31, 2006

Billions and Billions of Stars

One of the important measurements astronomers make is the brightness of stars. Originally this was done by eye. When astronomers started using photographic plates, special devices were used to measure the brightness of stars. Today, computers combined with powerful software are used to measure the brightness of stars, called photometry on CCD images.

Dr. Peter B. Stetson, of the National Research Council, was recently elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the Academy of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada, partly for his photometry software call DAOPHOT. DAOPHOT was developed especially to do photometry on stars which are very close together or even overlapping. Since it's initial release in 1985, DAOPHOT has been used by thousands of astronomers to measure countless billions of stars on millions of CCD images. A Google search for DAOPHOT returns over 78,000 hits. Dr. Stetson's paper describing the DAOPHOT software is the most highly cited paper in astronomy for 1987 with over 2,100 citations.

Dr. Stetson himself has applied it to the study of the ages of stars and to the determination of the age of the universe from its expansion rate. On all these topics he is considered a leading authority.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

eqzzrpann http://www.free-mass-traffic.net/free-mass-traffic/free-mass-traffic-review Free Mass Traffic

Anonymous said...

Hello, I think your site might be having browser compatibility issues.
When I look at your blog in Ie, it looks fine but when opening in Internet Explorer, it
has some overlapping. I just wanted to give you a quick heads
up! Other then that, very good blog!

Feel free to visit my weblog ... Anxiety Panic Attacks Can Mess Up Your Life. What Natural Anxiety Remedies Can Help
My site :: Natural Anxiety Remedies Tips

Anonymous said...

A motivating discussion is definitely worth comment. I believe that you need to
publish more about this topic, it might not be a taboo matter
but usually people don't discuss such subjects. To the next! Best wishes!!

Also visit my web site - JustHost Evaluations

Anonymous said...

Fantastic beat ! I wish to apprentice while you amend your site,
how could i subscribe for a blog website? The account helped me a acceptable
deal. I had been tiny bit acquainted of this your broadcast provided bright clear idea

Also visit my weblog: Hostpapa Evaluations

Anonymous said...

I'm amazed, I must say. Seldom do I come across a blog that's equally educative and
interesting, and without a doubt, you have hit the nail on the head.
The problem is something that not enough men and women are speaking intelligently about.

I am very happy that I came across this during my
search for something concerning this.

Feel free to visit my weblog; Hosting Reviews

Anonymous said...

I'm amazed, I must say. Seldom do I come across a blog that's equally educative and interesting, and without a doubt,
you have hit the nail on the head. The problem is something that not enough men and women are speaking intelligently about.
I am very happy that I came across this during my search for something concerning this.


Feel free to surf to my web-site ... Hosting Reviews
my site: http://bestcloudcomputingoffers.com/e2

Anonymous said...

I have read so many articles or reviews regarding
the blogger lovers except this article is in fact a nice paragraph, keep it up.



my web site; vexxhost customer reviews

Anonymous said...

When someone writes an paragraph he/she retains the image of a user in his/her brain that how a user can be aware of it.

Thus that's why this paragraph is great. Thanks!

my homepage ... Justhost recommendations

Anonymous said...

It's perfect time to make some plans for the future and it's time to be happy.
I've read this post and if I could I desire to suggest you some interesting things or tips. Maybe you could write next articles referring to this article. I wish to read even more things about it!

Take a look at my blog; cheap vps hosting uk