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Random Errors

This is the error associated with the finite number of detected particles. For photon noise from a CCD it is tex2html_wrap_inline267 where R is the read-out noise, D, B & S are the dark current, sky background and source signals per unit time, t is the integration time and n is the number of pixels used. We must integrate long enough so that tex2html_wrap_inline269 when we are background limited.



Michael Burton
Wed Sep 3 22:07:11 EST 1997