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Council approved this latest proposal on 5th September. We have a lot to catch up on so please don’t expect too much too soon. Suggestions and offers of help most welcome. Thanks for your support with this endeavor.
I will be there to listen with interest to see what they have to say which I am sure will include a number of opportunities for amateurs.
Regards
Hi David,
Thanks for your comments.
A number of BAA members are already working on exoplanets and have expressed interest in forming a section and it would make sense to draw them together to define an observing program – a number of options were included in my proposal. VSS members (and those of other sections such as asteroids and comments) do obviously have the required skills but that doesn’t necessarily imply that exoplanet observing should be incorporated into one of them. It is a growing field and it is not my view alone that it needs its own focus i.e. section. We need to look at the future of amateur astronomy in a very positive way and be prepared to give new ideas a proper trial.
Regards
Hi Mark,
Agree ref skills as mentioned on reply to Grant. Professionals are already detecting exoplanet atmospheres and I don’t doubt that amateurs will also be able to in the future.
One of the main thrusts, if not the main thrust, for professional astronomers working in this field is the detection of Earth-like worlds and determining whether or not they might harbour life. An area of interest for amateurs even if there is nothing we can do practically at the moment.
Regards
Hi Grant,
I would agree that any imager who has monitored asteroids, comets, variable stars and produced the associated light curves would be equally at home with exoplanets. Responsibilities will have to wait until a sub-section/section decision is made but I would hope that if the former then the leader would have more or less a free hand to decide on an observing program.
Regards
Hi Eric – thanks for your thoughts. An observing program centred on specific targets is preferable in that observers can compare results and methods which lead on to better things. I would imagine that most professionals work on specific missions so we probably need to tie into a mission but a friendly face within a mission would be of considerable help. ~Watch out for the next BAA Newsletter and e-bulletin specific to the proposed Exoplanet Section.
Regards
Rgeards
Couldn’t agree more and it is something the BAA is very keen on. When he was President Jeremy Shears had an article to that effect published in the RAS magazine ‘Astronomy and Geophysics’.
Good afternoon everyone,
I have not yet had a reply but as soon as I do I will pass it on via this forum. I guess I am being a little impatient but I would have hoped, and liked, to have had a result one way or the other by now.
Regards
In view of the support received I have modified my proposal to request that the section be set up without any further polling of BAA members (see last paragraph of revised proposal below)
Is it time for a BAA Exoplanet Section ?
(Revised proposal)
Introduction
This is a relatively new field in which the BAA ought to have a presence and forming an Exoplanet Section would achieve this. There are a number of opportunities for both practical amateur involvement and for armchair enthusiasts.
Potential section objectives
Foster interests in all aspects of exoplanets by advising members of; latest developments, on-line courses, meetings, resources via a regular newsletter and the section’s website
Encourage and provide support for practical projects both amateur and pro-am and promote a greater understanding of exoplanet discoveries and properties. For example;
Practical
– Transit imaging
– On-line analysis of transit lightcurves to search for exoplanets
– Participation in pro-am projects (e.g. Project Twinkle)
Theoretical
– Keeping up to date on exoplanets in general
– Knowledge of ground and space-based observatories and technology
– Understanding astrobiology (by on-line courses for example)
Establishing links with related organisations
– UK Centre for Astrobiology
– UK Exoplanet Community
– Centre for Exoplanet Science
– SETI Institute
– Planetary Society
– British Interplanetary Society
Education and outreach
– Awareness of courses (mostly on-line)
– Schools projects relating to transit lightcurve interpretation
Request to Council
Having been in touch with a number of BAA members I find that there is considerable support for forming an Exoplanet section, in fact some members are already engaged in exoplanet observations. I therefore request that Council give serious consideration to forming such a section.
Roger Dymock
Good afternoon all,
The amount of support for an Exoplanet Section far exceeds what I expected. It appears that quite a number of BAA members are already making exoplanet observations and others have a wider interest (e.g. Zooniverse projects, Astrobiology, etc) which bodes well for the future of the Section (assuming it gets the ‘Go for launch’).
I do believe that we need a separate section rather than be embedded in the ARPS or VSS but we shall see. If any of you feel like emailing the BAA President (Callum Potter) with your views please do so.
I will catch up on all the posts/emails in detail in a couple of weeks when we have finished decorating. I would have liked an exoplanet mural on one wall but the proposal was tied on votes and the ‘Chairperson’s’ casting vote ditched the idea.
Regards
Hi Dominic,
I used the iOptron for a short time but found it a complete PITA. Too many screws to tighten (and one always seemed to come loose) and you can’t easily adjust it in RA or dec. I sold it and and now use my DSLR plus small refractor on a goto mount which I originally used for a Newtonian reflector. You might like to think about something like the Skywatcher EQ mounts. Don’t skimp on the payload capacity though.
Regards
Thanks Dominic. You should get all changes reviewed by those of us of a certain age and failing eyesight !!!
Regards
Hi Robin,
Thanks for your reply. I understand what you are saying about the multipliers (same as Adrian Berry I guess).
Regards
A reply from Richard Berry on the AIP4WIN forum, below, confirmed the point I made in my 2016-07-04 post;
Yes, they are added. This avoid any integer roundoff.
If you want to, you can use Red=Grn=Blu=0.33333.I quickly tried his suggestion using an uncalibrated image and it seemed to work. What I need to do now is use this method to calibrate an image and see what results I get in Astrometrica.
Further to my query. In AIP4WIN Bayer conversion settings, DeBayer, Convert Colour to Grayscale I set Red Scale=Blue Scale =0 and Green Scale =1, opened a RAW camera image and saved it as FITS. Using Measure/Statistics the max value = 15305.
I then set Red=Blue=Green=1 and opened and saved an image as above. The max value was then given as 45915 which is 3x the 15305 obtained previously (A calibrated image has a max value of 40471.8).Are the red, green and blue channels being added?RegardsHi Callum,
Thanks for your interest. My proces is (using AIP4WIN);
1) Convert camera images and calibration frames to FITS
2) Calibrate (using dark frames, flat fieldsand flat darks)
3) Extract the green channel (which I then process with Astrometrica for astrometry and photometry)
Regards
Hi Richard,
Thanks for your comments. Ron Arbour’s article in this months JBAA reminded me that I have a Bahtinov mask suitable for my refractor. Bench testing showed that focusing for the ‘smallest blob’ using Live View is nowhere near as accurate as using the mask. Nick James suggested checking the focus across the whole image so I will try that using the mask asap.
I would rather it be a focus problemn than what you suggest which sounds more difficult to fix. Hopefully tonight or tomorrow night will provide clear conditions.
Regards
