Isophote Fitting for Extended Sources
Surface photometry of elliptical galaxies was rejuvenated in the early 1980s
with the development of algorithms for fitting isophotes (surface brightness
contours) to CCD images. These methods can be used to create smooth models
for elliptical or nearly elliptical objects, and also for creating radial
(azimuthally averaged) surface brightness profiles for extended sources that
may not be exactly elliptical.
The 'ellipse' task and its helpers live in the stsdas.analysis.isophote
package. Documentation can be found in this
excerpt from the STSDAS manual.
Further advice for using the 'ellipse' task will be added here as needed.
Last updated 2002 May 6. Written and maintained by
Tom Statler