THE DIGITIZED SECOND PALOMAR OBSERVATORY SKY SURVEY (DPOSS). II. PHOTOMETRIC CALIBRATION

We present the photometric calibration technique for the Digitized Second Palomar Observatory Sky Survey, used to create seamless catalogs of calibrated objects over large sky areas. After applying a correction for telescope vignetting, the extensive plate overlap regions are used to transform sets of plates onto a common instrumental photometric system. Photometric transformations to the Gunn gri system for each plate, for stars and galaxies, are derived using these contiguous stitched areas and an extensive CCD imaging library obtained for this purpose. We discuss the resulting photometric accuracy, survey depth, and possible systematic errors. Key words: catalogs — surveys — techniques: photometric Online material: color figures 1