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  • Calibration of Complementary Metal-oxide-semiconductor Sensor–based Photometry to a Few-millimagnitude Precision: The Case of the Mini-SiTian Array

This content will become publicly available on March 19, 2026

Title: Calibration of Complementary Metal-oxide-semiconductor Sensor–based Photometry to a Few-millimagnitude Precision: The Case of the Mini-SiTian Array
Abstract We present a pioneering achievement in the high-precision photometric calibration of CMOS-based photometry, by application of the Gaia Blue Photometer or Red Photometer (XP) spectra–based synthetic photometry method to the mini-SiTian array (MST) photometry. Through 79 repeated observations of thef02field on the night, we find good internal consistency in the calibrated MSTGMST-band magnitudes for relatively bright stars, with a precision of about 4 mmag forGMST ∼ 13. Results from more than 30 different nights (over 3100 observations) further confirm this internal consistency, indicating that the 4 mmag precision is stable and achievable over timescales of months. An independent external validation using spectroscopic data from the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope DR10 and high-precision photometric data using CCDs from Gaia DR3 reveals a zero-point consistency better than 1 mmag. Our results clearly demonstrate that CMOS photometry is on par with CCD photometry for high-precision results, highlighting the significant capabilities of CMOS cameras in astronomical observations, especially for large-scale telescope survey arrays.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1927130
PAR ID:
10649200
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
IOP
Date Published:
Journal Name:
The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Volume:
982
Issue:
1
ISSN:
2041-8205
Page Range / eLocation ID:
L27
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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