mpo

Announcement
Minor Planet Observer's Canopus Software
Special Edition now included for free with photometric filter sets
and available for free to all new camera purchasers as of
June 1, 2006

SBIG is proud to include a free version of Brian Warner's MPO Canopus software with every new Photometric filter set, and a coupon for a free copy of the software with every new camera beginning June 1, 2006.

MPO Canopus is one of the leading astrometry and photometry programs available for amateur use. With just one program you can process and measure your images, do photometric transforms, generate lightcurves, analyze periods and times of minimum, look for new asteroids or new variables, and much more. Special features built into Canopus make measuring images and analyzing lightcurve characteristics simple and easy. In just a few minutes, you can setup, measure 150-200 images, and start analyzing the lightcurve data. You can easily combine data from several nights and even different observers. MPO Canopus has been around since 1999, and has been used by amateurs around the world to submit thousands of astrometric positions to the Minor Planet Center.

Also since 1999, MPO Canopus has been used to measure images to determine the rotation period of hundreds of asteroids with many of the results appearing in journals such as the Minor Planet Bulletin and Icarus. In recent years, Canopus has also gained popularity for measuring and determining the lightcurves of variable stars. Canopus can even generate special files compatible with "Binary Maker", a popular binary star modeling program.

Canopus uses the "industry standard" Fourier analysis algorithm developed by Alan W. Harris for period analysis. While designed specifically for asteroid work, the routine in Canopus works very well on eclipsing binaries and other types of variables that have single periodic curves. Canopus has employed "ensemble photometry" from the beginning, allowing up to five comparison stars to be used to generate an average value subtracted from the measurement of the target object, be it an asteroid or variable star.

PhotoRed (PHOTOmetric REDuctions) is a utility program built into Canopus that allows you to covert the raw instrumental magnitudes measured in Canopus or PhotoRed to the Johnson-Cousins standard magnitude system. There's no need to use a spread sheet or other program in order to make the final calculations. PhotoRed determines the nightly extinction, transforms, and zero points using your images of standard fields. Once you have those values, you import the Canopus data into PhotoRed, convert the magnitudes to standard values, and export the data back for Canopus to use. PhotoRed includes provisions to convert Clear (unfiltered) observations to standard V, assuming you have at least some images in V of the target and a reference field. Higher accuracy can be achieved by having additional images in B or R.

Furthermore, both Canopus and PhotoRed produce plots of critical data so that you can easily eliminate obvious outliers or analyze the results with more certainty. What makes Canopus/PhotoRed stand out is that they are self-contained. You don't need to export your data to other programs to do calculations or do data analysis.

GENERAL FEATURES:

Includes MPO Star Catalog (MPOSC), a 15M star subset of the USNO A2. 36M star version of MPOSC is included on registered DVD version.
Supports full USNO A catalog (available separately) and UCAC2 (3-CD set from USNO). Full UCAC2 is included on registered DVD version.
Includes recent versions of the MPCORB and ASTORB asteroid files as well as a subset of the Henden fields (approximately 400 fields with stars having Verror <0.02m and min of 3 observations).
Complete electronic documentation (PDF) that includes a Users Guide: a set of step-by-step tutorial lessons that guide the user from initial setup, to lightcurve period analysis, to photometry reductions using example images included on the CD.
Free technical support via a Yahoo news group. Registered users get (usually) free updates via the MPO web site.

PHOTOMETRY FEATURES (Canopus)

Ensemble aperture photometry using up to five (5) comparison stars.
Records instrumental magnitude of each star and target as well as date/time and air mass.
Data can be saved to simple text files for custom analysis in other programs or to special export files for easy data exchange among other Canopus users.
Period analysis using Alan Harris' "industry standard" Fourier analysis algorithm.
Works on asteroids or variable stars with single period.
Easy setup using a "Lightcurve Wizard" that allows measuring hundreds of images per hour.
Manual override of measurements allows full control of the measuring process.

PHOTOMETRY FEATURES (PhotoRed)

Uses several wizards for easy setup to measure images
Use to find first order extinction, transformation coefficients, and convert raw instrumental magnitudes onto Johnson-Cousins BVRI system.
Includes special routines to convert Clear to V magnitudes that account for color dependencies of the system.
Can import data directly from Canopus data files. After conversion, the data can be saved out in the Canopus export files for use in Canopus for period analysis and detailed plotting.
Plots of all critical analysis results are included in order to maintain full control over the reduction process, e.g., spotting outlier points or otherwise "bad data."

DEMO VERSION FEATURES

Some of the features in the registered version of MPO Canopus/PhotoRed are disabled in this special edition. However, all the features you'll need to measure images, find the period of a lightcurve, and reduce your data to standard magnitudes are fully available.

Only some of the "bonus" utilities that make Canopus/PhotoRed even more powerful research tools have been disabled. These include the Moving Object Search, Variable Star Search, and Double Star Measurements utilities along with some utilities that allow you to make backups of certain files.

Canopus uses the concept of "sessions" to work with data from different nights, filters, observers, etc. You are limited to 100 sessions in this special edition of the software. That should be more than enough to get you going. When you purchase a registered copy, your data will be preserved and so you can continue on without missing a step.

The Conversion utilities are also disabled. These allow you to update the MPCORB and ASTORB asteroid data files as well as the UserStar catalog where you can add custom stars used for photometry reductions. This is NOT a time-limited version of the software. You can use it indefinitely. However, you will not be able to get the free updates that are available to registered users.

UPGRADE

Upgrade to the full version of MPO Canopus/PhotoRed by contacting MPO at: http://www.minorplanetobserver.com

Also recommended reading is Brian Warner's book: "A Practical Guide to Lightcurve Photometry and Analysis"
available at Amazon.com and BarnesNoble.com

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

MPO Canopus/PhotoRed Requirements:

PC Operating System: Windows 95 and above
Screen: 800x600x256 minimum, 1024x768x64K recommended (or higher)
Memory: That required to run O/S efficiently
Free Disk Space: About 1GB