<p>As the title says, what is considered as an "acceptable" error in a photometric measurement (in magnitudes)?</p>

<p>I know that it will depend a bit on the final use of the data, i.e., the photometric error acceptable for a measurement meant to observe a planetary transit over a star will not be the same as the photometric error acceptable for measuring a light curve of a variable star, but I suppose that there should be some guidelines, or generally accepted values (for example, related to the SNR of the observation).</p>

<p>The point is that I have a ton of observations in several filters for different objects, each observation with its associated error (derived from the observation). And I need to filter a bit the data, to keep only good quality data. I saw <a href="https://www.aavso.org/acceptable-error-range-submssions" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a> that errors of 0.10 mags are tolerable, but 0.25 mags means that you might also be detecting noise. So, I would like to know, where should I put the tolerance in the error (at least, from one more source different to that link). </p>

<p>Any help would be appreciated!! :D</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-11-02T14:59:54.817Z
This cannot be anwered, for the reasons you have identified yourself. Context is everything. What data do you have, what are its uncertainties, what do you need to use it for?
ProfRob
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-11-05T18:01:56.880Z
Each instrument has its own systematic error, and each observation has its own statistical error. Typically, an error ~0.01 mag or less is acceptable for science.
Kornpob Bhirombhakdi
<photometry>
Acceptable errors in photometric measurements
David
# Acceptable errors in photometric measurements

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-11-02)

As the title says, what is considered as an "acceptable" error in a photometric measurement (in magnitudes)?

I know that it will depend a bit on the final use of the data, i.e., the photometric error acceptable for a measurement meant to observe a planetary transit over a star will not be the same as the photometric error acceptable for measuring a light curve of a variable star, but I suppose that there should be some guidelines, or generally accepted values (for example, related to the SNR of the observation).

The point is that I have a ton of observations in several filters for different objects, each observation with its associated error (derived from the observation). And I need to filter a bit the data, to keep only good quality data. I saw [here](https://www.aavso.org/acceptable-error-range-submssions) that errors of 0.10 mags are tolerable, but 0.25 mags means that you might also be detecting noise. So, I would like to know, where should I put the tolerance in the error (at least, from one more source different to that link).

Any help would be appreciated!! :D

**Tags:** photometry

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: This cannot be anwered, for the reasons you have identified yourself. Context is everything. What data do you have, what are its uncertainties, what do you need to use it for?  
> **username_2**: Each instrument has its own systematic error, and each observation has its own statistical error. Typically, an error ~0.01 mag or less is acceptable for science.  

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## 0 answers

