DAOPHOT II: The Next Generation

This manual is intended as a guide to the use of the digital stellar photometry reduction program DAOPHOT II: The Next Generation. Brief descriptions of the major routines are provided to aid the user in the use of the program, and to serve as an introduction to the algorithms for programmers called upon to make modifications. A more complete understanding of the methods used can best be obtained by direct examination of the source code and the comment statements embedded therein.

DAOPHOT Classic was originally constructed within the framework of a computer program given to Linda Stryker and the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory by Jeremy Mould (Caltech). The aperture-photometry portion of the current program is still somewhat influenced by algorithms and subroutines developed at Kitt Peak National Observatory, by way of the POORMAN code developed by Jeremy Mould and Keith Shortridge at Caltech. POORMAN was first made to run on the DAO VAX by Linda Stryker, and was modified and generalized by Ed Olszewski. Over the years, Peter Stetson has replaced all of the subroutines with others of his own writing. In DAOPHOT II: The Next Generation all of the major algorithms and actual FORTRAN coding are done by Stetson, with the exception of those Figaro, IRAF, or MIDAS routines which are used for the image input and output. Stetson is solely responsible for bugs and algorithm-related problems. If any such problems are found, please contact Peter Stetson; for major problems, hard-copy documentation of the circumstances and nature of the difficulty would be highly desirable.

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This manual has been modified to reflect the new VMS/Unix compatible version of DAOPHOT II: The Next Generation. If you are still running DAOPHOT Classic you will find many places where this manual is inappropriate. The last appendix (Appendix V) shows how to enable the DAOPHOT software within MIDAS and to convert DAOPHOT tables to MIDAS tables and vice versa.