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A comparison of the measuring machines APM and MAMA for astrometric application
Author(s) -
Schilbach E.,
Scholz R.D.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
astronomische nachrichten
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.394
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1521-3994
pISSN - 0004-6337
DOI - 10.1002/asna.2113130406
Subject(s) - stars , physics , magnitude (astronomy) , orthogonality , galaxy , astrometry , astrophysics , geometry , mathematics
Measurements of two Tautenburg plates were used for a comparison of the astrometric accuracy of the automatic measuring machines PAM and MAMA. From plate‐to plate solutions a positional accuracy of about 1 μm was achieved for stars with 7 < B < 17 for MAMA and with 11 < B < 17 for APM measurements. A rapid decrease in positional accuracy of fainter stars is caused rather by random effects of the photographic emulsion. A magnitude equation between the plates was obtained to be less than 1 μm over the whole magnitude range. Systematic errors with a small period of 2 cm in the APM measurements as well as a non‐orthogonality and systematic differences between the MAMA and APM coordinate grids were found. A procedure of classifying all real objects measured into stars, galaxies and merged objets is presented for the MAMA measurements and the results are compared with the routine APM classification. Except for merged objects the MAMA and APM classification show a very good agreement for stars brighter than B = 18.5.