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Paper: Microvariability Survey Based on Photometry with the HST Fine Guidance Sensors
Volume: 135, A Half Century of Stellar Pulsation Interpretations: a Tribute to Arthur N. Cox
Page: 362
Authors: Kuschnig, R.; Weiss, W. W.; Zwintz, K.
Abstract: The Fine Guidance Sensors (FGS) are photometric devices which are implemented in order to point the Hubble Space Telescope with high astrometric precision to the scientific objects. During a guiding session the brightness of a Guide Star is measured with high time resolution and the data are stored as technical information. This paper is a report on the successful attempt to extract scientific information from this engineering data, by applying a time series analysis on the FGS photometry. Since the start of the HST mission already 6000 Guide Stars were acquired by the three FGS instruments. The brightness of Guide Stars are in the limits from 8 to 14.5 mag and their spectral type is generally unknown. The amount of photometric data obtained from a Guide Star varies from one dataset with a total duration of 2 min up to many measurements distributed over days or even month. The noise level we can reach are in the wide range from 5 x 10-2 - 5 x 10-5 mag. In particular we want to present two aspects: First, a review on the results from the time-series analysis of more than 2000 Guide Stars. Secondly, based on the datasets obtained during the HST Deep Field program (11 days continuous photometry of two Guide Stars), we will estimate whether and under which conditions the Fine-Guidance-Sensors can be used to detect solar-type oscillations.
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