The Gaia spectrophotometric standard stars survey. I. Preliminary results

E. Pancino, G. Altavilla, S. Marinoni, G. Cocozza, J. M. Carrasco, M. Bellazzini, A. Bragaglia, L. Federici, E. Rossetti, C. Cacciari, L. Balaguer Nunez, A. Castro, F. Figueras, F. Fusi Pecci, S. Galleti, M. Gebran, C. Jordi, C. Lardo, E. Masana, Maria Monguio MontellsP. Montegriffo, S. Ragaini, W. Schuster, S. Trager, F. Vilardell, H. Voss

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    41 Citations (Scopus)
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    Abstract

    We describe two ground based observing campaigns aimed at building a grid of approximately 200 spectrophotometric standard stars (SPSS), with an internal ~1% precision and tied to Vega within ~3%, for the absolute flux calibration of data gathered by Gaia, the ESA astrometric mission. The criteria for the selection and a list of candidates are presented, together with a description of the survey strategy and the adopted data analysis methods. We also discuss a short list of notable rejected SPSS candidates and difficult cases, based on identification problems, literature discordant data, visual companions, and variability. In fact, all candidates are also monitored for constancy (within \pm5 mmag, approximately). In particular, we report on a CALSPEC standard, 1740346, that we found to be a delta Scuti variable during our short-term monitoring (1-2 h) campaign.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1767-1781
    Number of pages15
    JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
    Volume426
    Issue number3
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Nov 2012

    Keywords

    • Techniques: photometric
    • techniques: spectroscopic
    • catalogues
    • stars: variables: : δ Scuti.

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