Kepler & K2
Target pixel files for long and short cadence targets for K2 Campaign 7 are now available for download from the K2 data archive at MAST. Light curves are also available for long cadence targets.
In Campaign 7 there was a significant drop in the number of targets observed relative to previous campaigns. This drop was because the number of targets we can observe is a function of our on-board compression efficiency. The extremely dense nature of the Campaign 7 field forced us to assume a poorer compression estimate than we used for earlier campaigns.
This target list consists of 13,469 standard long cadence and 72 standard short cadence targets. There were also several custom targets. We tiled a region around the open cluster Ruprecht 147 using 60 individual pixel masks. In addition, we included large pixel masks over 3 Trojan/Hilda Asteroids and the (dwarf) planet Pluto. Bodies within our own Solar System move relative to the celestial sphere and are covered by long streaks of pixels. We tiled just a subset of the pixels that make up the path the Trojans/Hildas move along. These observations are in long cadence. Finally, we also observed 10 very bright stars by targeting just the central region of pixels around these targets but excluding the bleed columns.
Detailed data release notes are available on the Kepler & K2 Science Center website. We encourage users to read these carefully; in particular, note that there was an increase in roll drift in Campaign 7 due to the use of an alternate low-gain antenna during science data collection. This increase in roll motion, combined with an extremely crowded field, impacted the photometry produced by the Kepler pipeline. Additional details are available in the full data release notes.