Abstract
The Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) on HST is providing unsurpassed imaging capabilities and supporting accurate stellar photometry over large fields of view at high angular resolution. I discuss a feature of the WFPC2 CCD systems that nominally limits the dynamic range attainable with single exposures: a 12 bit analog to digital converter that does not allow sampling of the CCD full-well depth even at the low gain (14e-/DN) setting. I demonstrate that accurate stellar photometry can be performed on stellar images that are strongly saturated. Two 40 s exposures in V and I bands on the old open cluster M67 are analyzed to demonstrate photometric capabilities with a dynamic range of over 12 mag from single exposures. New photometric results for both bright and faint objects in M67 are derived from the WFPC2 data.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | L63-L66 |
Journal | Astrophysical Journal |
Volume | 435 |
Issue number | 1 PART 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Nov 1 1994 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Space and Planetary Science