On the Automatic Determination of Light-Curve Parameters for Cepheid Variables

A computerized algorithm for the automatic detection of Cepheid variables and for the estimation of their periods, amplitudes, and mean magnitudes from sparse data sets is presented. It is intended to be suitable for use in such programs as the measurement of Cepheid distances to external galaxies, for example with the Hubble Space Telescope. The reliability of the algorithm is tested by application to new photometric reductions of pre-repair HST images of the nearby Sdm galaxy IC 4182, with comparison to published analyses of the same data (Saha et al. 1994, ApJ, 425, 14).