Methods
The methods used to perform photometry depend on the wavelength regime under study. At its most basic, photometry is conducted by gathering radiation in a telescope, perhaps passing it through specialized optical filters, and then capturing and recording the light energy with a photosensitive instrument. The set of passbands (filters) is called a photometric system.
Historically, photometry in the near infrared through long-wavelength ultra-violet was done with a photoelectric photometer, an instrument that measured the light intensity of a single object by directing its light on to a photosensitive cell. They have largely been replaced with CCD cameras which can simultaneously image multiple objects, though photoelectric photometers are still used in special situations, such as where high time resolution is required.
Read more about this topic: Photometry (astronomy)
Famous quotes containing the word methods:
“With a generous endowment of motherhood provided by legislation, with all laws against voluntary motherhood and education in its methods repealed, with the feminist ideal of education accepted in home and school, and with all special barriers removed in every field of human activity, there is no reason why woman should not become almost a human thing. It will be time enough then to consider whether she has a soul.”
—Crystal Eastman (1881–1928)
“It would be some advantage to live a primitive and frontier life, though in the midst of an outward civilization, if only to learn what are the gross necessaries of life and what methods have been taken to obtain them.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“We are lonesome animals. We spend all our life trying to be less lonesome. One of our ancient methods is to tell a story begging the listener to say—and to feel—”Yes, that’s the way it is, or at least that’s the way I feel it. You’re not as alone as you thought.””
—John Steinbeck (1902–1968)