Introduction

The Advanced Exposure Time Calculator (AETC) is a tool to simulate images of astrophysical objects obtained with any combination of telescope, instrument and given passband using a suitable set of parameters that define the configuration of the equipment used for the observations. The tool provides count rates and its distribution over the focal plane, through the proper definition of the PSF, of virtually any telescope equipped with an imager provided that its configuration is assessed. Moreover a detailed simulation of the observed fields can be simulated including stars, galaxies and more complex objects providing template of the targets.

Look at the following references for additional information.

Falomo, R., Fantinel, D., Uslenghi, M 2011 Proc. SPIE 8135, 813523 (2011)     (PDF)

Uslenghi, M, Falomo, R., Fantinel, D., 2016 Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 9911, id. 99112U (PDF)

 

Some example of images produced by AETC:

Nuclear star cluster. MICADO@E-ELT Nearby galaxy cluster. WFC@INT M51-like galaxy @z=2.4. MICADO@E-ELT

List of published papers that used simulated images by AETC