The Automated Photometry of Transients pipeline (AutoPhOT)

Abstract

We present the Automated Photometry of Transients (AutoPhOT) package, a novel automated pipeline that is designed for rapid, publication-quality photometry of astronomical transients. AutoPhOT is built from the ground up using Python 3 – with no dependencies on legacy software. Capabilities of AutoPhOT include aperture and point-spread-function photometry, template subtraction, and calculation of limiting magnitudes through artificial source injection. AutoPhOT is also capable of calibrating photometry against either survey catalogues, or using a custom set of local photometric standards, and is designed primarily for ground-based optical and infrared images. We show that both aperture and point-spread-function photometry from AutoPhOT is consistent with commonly used software, for example, DAOPHOT, and also demonstrate that AutoPhOT can reproduce published light curves for a selection of transients with minimal human intervention.