Projects

[Alan Thomas]

Yes, thanks. I don’t doubt it. The Unistellar offers involvement in several ‘citizen science’ projects co-ordinated,  as I understand it, by SETI, including asteroid occultation and exoplanet transits. I may well get involved with these or BAA projects at some point. But I am nearing my mid-70s and am on ‘catch up’ at the moment, seeing, often for the first time, a multitude of DSOs. I think once I have been indulging myself for a full year, I may take on some more serious observing. But that’s enough about me . . . 🙂

[Dr Paul Leyland]

I had not heard that a 4″ Unistellar can make useful observations of exoplanets but knew that a 6″ reflector most certainly can.  It is good that I am now better informed.

As noted, much smaller apertures, a Mark-1 eyeball and some way of taking records is all that is essential.

[Stewart John Bean]

I note that many of the AAVSOnet instruments are small: BSM New Mexico and BSM Berry (Perth , Aust) are both 180 mm. For VS use they are suitable and are busy – when working.

[Robin Leadbeater]

They used to  be even smaller I think (AstroTech 65mm/70mm refractors) They also had at least one with a Star Analyser 200 in the filter wheel which Arne Henden and I sorted. Unfortunately that does not work well with the  new  Takahashi E-180 astrographs which at f2.8 are too fast for the SA200

[Dr Andrew Smith]

I would more than happy to help. I also now have experience of doing very low resolution spectroscopy at a remote hosted site. I am develop a new instrument based on an alpy which will use similar techniques to the high resolution work.

Regards Andrew 

[David Arditti]

Very interesting Paul.

By the way, I showed your picture of the volcano going off behind your observatory near the end of the Sky Notes in the October meeting.

I hope things have calmed down.

David

[David Arditti]

The Board has been in correspondence with the Galloway Forest Dark Sky Observatory with a view to helping them rebuild.

David

[Dr Paul Leyland]

Yes, I saw that on the recording.

The volcano appears not to be getting any worse, nor better, but is undoubtedly changing. The latest sign is the appearance of elemental sulphur on the surface around the top of the cone. If you read Spanish, or know how to use a web translation service, this link contains a good picture and an explanation: https://www.eldiario.es/canariasahora/lapalmaahora/aparicion-depositos-azufre-elemental-apuntan-cambio-claro-dinamica-volcan_1_8464747.html

[Maxim Usatov]

My team is currently setting up a 17″ CDK in Spain with IMX455-based CMOS. It will have a user-friendly interface for reservation, plan generation, etc. The telescope is already operational, but we need now to finalize all the scripting, web front-end, logic, and a few other things. Here are more details about this endeavor:

https://www.alnitakobs.com/

I would like to negotiate donating a specific portion of time on this telescope to BAA. I would appreciate if someone could provide me with any pointers on how to start this. It has UBVRI set of Johnson/Bessel filters, in addition to LRGB, H-alpha, OIII and SII filters, so fully ready for photometry. In fact, we are thinking about connecting my MetroPSF program to the front-end, so if you need quick photometry you can just quickly specify the target and get fully reduced photometry – automated, even in real-time, if needed. (But that’s in the future…)

This is the first telescope our team is setting up and we would be very interested to be of use for BAA, especially if the data is used for scientific research and publications.

Maxim

[David Arditti]

Thanks Maxim, I have messaged you about this.

David (President)

[Nick James]

That looks like a very nice setup. I couldn’t find it stated explicitly but I think your 60MP sensor is an IMX455. Combining the wide field of that system with automated plate solving and photometry would make it very powerful. Adding moving object detection and astrometry would be even better.

Are you using ACP for scheduling?

[Maxim Usatov]

Thank you, Nick. Yes, we use ACP and a web front-end so users could submit plans easily. MetroPSF can now detect all minor planets and comets (all SkyBoT objects) – this version is to be released, but the plan is to build it into the front-end as well. The sensor is IMX455 – back-illuminated CMOS, that is correct.

[Author]

Posts