SAPAC: a SBF analysis pipeline for the astronomical community

Abstract

Large volumes of CCD imaging data that will become available from wide-field cameras at telescopes such as the CFHT, SUBARU, VST, or VISTA in the near future are highly suitable for systematic distance surveys of early-type galaxies using the Surface Brightness Fluctuation (SBF) method. For the efficient processing of such large data sets, we are developing the first semi-automatic SBF analysis pipeline named SAPAC. After a brief description of the SBF method we discuss the image quality needed for a successful distance measurement and give some background information on SAPAC

3 pages, 1 figure. Poster to appear in the proceedings of the IAUC198 "Near-Field Cosmology with Dwarf Elliptical Galaxies". For updated information see http://www.mso.anu.edu.au/~laurad/SAPAC.html