Enabling science with Gaia observations of naked-eye stars
Abstract
ESA's Gaia space astrometry mission is performing an all-sky survey of stellar objects. At the beginning of the nominal mission in July 2014, an operation scheme was adopted that enabled Gaia to routinely acquire observations of all stars brighter than the original limit of G∼6, i.e. the naked-eye stars. Here, we describe the current status and extent of those observations and their on-ground processing. We present an overview of the data products generated for G<6 stars and the potential scientific applications. Finally, we discuss how the Gaia survey could be enhanced by further exploiting the techniques we developed.
- Publication:
-
Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2016: Optical, Infrared, and Millimeter Wave
- Pub Date:
- July 2016
- DOI:
- 10.1117/12.2231240
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1605.08347
- Bibcode:
- 2016SPIE.9904E..2ES
- Keywords:
-
- Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics;
- Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 16 pages, 8 figures. Submitted for the proceedings of the 2016 SPIE Astronomical Instrumentation and Telescopes conference (SPIE 9904)