[BAA-ebulletin 00788] Gaia in the Sky - An Urgent Request
BAA electronic bulletins service
baa-ebulletin at britastro.org
Tue Feb 25 15:54:54 GMT 2014
An urgent observing request has been posted by Stefan Jordan and Martin
Altmann of the Univ. of Heidelberg, Germany, concerning the
recently-launched Gaia space observatory, which is now stationed some 1.5
million km from the Earth at the Lagrangian L2 point.
In particular, the need is for continuous unfiltered time-series of images
be taken of Gaia tomorrow (Wednesday, February 26) starting at say 11:50 UTC
through to 12:15 UTC. The target is currently mag 20.0-20.5 but starting at
11:58 UTC the observatory will be turned so that it is expected to brighten
by up to 5 magnitudes by 12:07 UTC possibly attaining mag 15. A lightcurve
depicting the form of the brightening vs. time would be an excellent result
as this is a matter of great interest to the engineers overseeing Gaia.
If you miss this manoeuvre, then a second reverse one is planned for
Thursday, February 27 starting at 09:06 UTC and completing at 09:16 UTC; so
coverage between say 09:00-09:25 UTC would be very good on that occasion.
Those data can be equally valuable.
These observing windows are during the day as seen from the UK and Europe.
Nevertheless, observations from the night of February 26/27 would also be
very interesting. Alternatively, scheduling remote observations via a
robotic telescope would enable one to capture either or both of the
manoeuvering events.
Gaia's ephemerides can be obtained at http://gaiainthesky.obspm.fr/fov/ .
Please send observations to Martin Altmann (maltmann at ari.uni-heidelberg.de)
and Stefan Jordan (jordan at ari.uni-heidelberg.de), copy myself.
Thank You and Good Luck,
Richard Miles (arps at britastro.org)
Director, Asteroids and Remote Planets Section
British Astronomical Association
2014 February 25 15:54
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