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Welcome to Amateur Astronomers, Inc. Research Committee Observations This page highlights observations, images, reports and findings contributed by our members. | |
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Asteriod Hunting Series - Asteroid Astrometry |
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(click on pictures below to see full size) 2003 UB313 - Palomar Photo Image The following image was rendered by Real Sky based on the data from the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey. This image shows the absence of any object in the location of 2003 UB313 confirming the image taken by Hank Adams below.
2003 UB313 - Tenth Planet? The following image was taken Sept 29, 2005 02:00 by Hank Adams. This object is possibly the tenth planet of our Solar System.
2003 M57 Ring Nebula First Light @ Sperry The following image was taken Sept 28, 2005 between 21:46 and 22:19:00 by Ed Carlos using the club‘s new ST8XME and the 24 inch Cassegrain. It is a stack of 10 second x 120 frames.
AAI ST6 Test Images The following images were taken Feb 19, 2005 as part of the CCD demonstration by Hank Adams. These images confirm that the ST6 is still in good condition.
Contributions from Dr. Dale Gary
**** CONGRATULATIONS to Dr. Dale Gary for receiving his MPC Observatory Code on Dec 19, 2004 **** Before you attempt to submit for an MPC code please read this MPC Advice Email excerpt from Dr. Dale Gary to the Research Committee Dated: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 16:00:47 +0000 (snip...) By the way, we had two good nights in a row and I did all of the observations needed for the MPC to grant me an observatory code (measured two different asteroids on two different nights). I sent in my report last night, but have not yet heard back. I will let you know what I hear. Meanwhile, I took some data on an asteroid named for one of my colleagues at NJIT, Lou Lanzerotti (he is one of those stellar individuals-he was chair of the recent panel that studied the Hubble repair options and last week advised NASA to proceed with a Shuttle-based repair mission, as one example-and they named an asteroid after him). I attach the results for that asteroid. Not bad data for a 17th magnitude asteroid! Regards, Dale Contributions from Hank Adams
Email excerpt from Hank Adams to the Research Committee Dated: Mon, 15 Nov 2004 21:01:06 +0000
The first image was dated Nov. 7 '04 at 1h 28m 33s UT
The second (lower) image was dated Nov. 7 '04 at 2h 2m 28s UT
These are the mid exposure times.
You might add this for those who might like to try astrometry.
Hank
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Asteriod Hunting Series - Asteroid LightCurves |
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(click on picture to see full size) Contributions from Hank Adams
Email excerpts from Hank Adams to the Research Committee on C/2002Q2 Dated: Mon, 27 Dec 2004 13:05:26 +0000 I believe I forgot to say that the image was obtained at the prime focus off my CG 11. That exposure was for 15 sec. unfiltered 2x2 binning. The longest exposure was for 360 sec. I was unable to detect a tail in any of a series of images. It is likely that the coma is larger than the field of view of the CCD. Comments? Hank Dated: Sun, 26 Dec 2004 16:57:31 +0000 On the 22nd I went out to find asteroids. Besides the cold there was an almost full moon and high thin clouds. Well on to plan B, I would image the Moon. It was so bright I completely saturated my CCD; on to plan C. Since Iwas controlling my scope with Guide I looked around to see what else was nearby. I saw comet Machholz nearby. I had tried to see it several days before but it was benaeth my roofline. However it seemed as though I might be able to observe it. I directed the scope toward it. I could see it in my 50mm finder. Then I took several images. I have appended two images to this email. One is of a 15 second exposure, shiwing a vertical lin thru the brightest picel in the coma. The next is a plot of the brightness along the line. I was surprised to see how steep the values jumped near the center. This plot is linear. Enjoy! Hank Contributions from Dr. Dale Gary
Click here for comparison between AIP4WIN and MaximIDL Email excerpt from Dr. Dale Gary to the Research Committee Dated: Wed, 10 Nov 2004 16:00:43 +0000 After hearing about the idea to obtain asteroid light curves, I decided to try it last night. I looked the list of suggested asteroids on the Minor Planet Center pages, and selected 539 Pamina, which was in the right part of the sky for me to see between trees, and it was one of the brighter ones at about 13th magnitude. I used my 10" Meade 200LX, and an Apogee Alta camera (512x512 pixels, each of 20x20 micron size). There was only one Tycho-2 star in the field, with listed magnitude 10.82. I attach an image showing that star, a "check" star, and the asteroid. I took about 60 images over a 2h period, and analyzed the photometry with MaxIm DL. I also attach the lightcurve. You can see that the measurement fails near the end of the 2h sequence, which is because the asteroid approaches a faint star that messes up the photometry. But I think you can see! that the "check" star is constant and Pamina is getting slightly brighter. A much longer time sequence is needed to try to see any periodicity. So my conclusion is that this is certainly possible, but it is going to take a long series of data. Of course, one can take bits of data over many days and do epoch folding. The advantage of the Sperry telescope is that we can go much fainter. Regards, Dale
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Telescope Control |
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LX200GPS 10 inch and Apogee CCD Camera script control written by Dr. Dale Gary Email excerpt from Dr. Dale Gary to the Research Committee Dated: Thu, 2 Dec 2004 03:35:42 +0000 I read the article on hunting asteroids for which Hank had sent the link, and I realized that to do this right would require the ability to point the telescope automatically at many adjacent regions of the sky and control the camera to photograph each one. After looking into it, I wrote the Virtual Basic script listed below, which controls the telescope and camera using the ASCOM platform (http://ascom-standards.org/). The script assumes that the telescope is pointed correctly, reads the RA and Dec from the telescope, and then asks the user how many fields to image, how many frames to take of each field, and how much overlap there should be between fields. It also reads the camera and telescope information and automatically figures out the field of view of the camera. It then moves the telescope in a raster pattern. To test the script, I observed the Orion Nebula on Sunday night, and you can see the result of a 5 x 5 raster of fields here: http://web.njit.edu/~gary/astro_images/M42_page.html. The result is pretty amazing (I think). I also took some fields near the ecliptic in the hope of finding a new asteroid, but I haven‘t analyzed the data yet. The data of the asteroid hunt are not that good, because I was still debugging the script. I can demo the script at Monday‘s research meeting if you wish. Regards, Dale Click here to see the sample image taken by Dr. Dale Gary using his script
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Tuthill Trailer Telescope Restoration |
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The following link is a Powerpoint (web version) document that Clif Ashcraft presented and discussed in the Feb 19 2005 Research Committee Meeting. Tuthill Telescope Ray Trace Spot Diagrams for the Tuthill Telescope Author Clif Ashcraft The following link is a Powerpoint (web version) document that was presented and discussed in the Jan 29 2005 Research Committee Meeting. The document outlines the project details for performing a feasibility study for restoring the Tuthill Trailer Telescope. The study will develop a recommendation that will be presented to both the AAI and UACNJ Executive Boards for approval prior to execution. Tuthill Telescope Feasibility Study Presentation Below is Clif Ashcraft‘s Provisional Sketch of theTuthill Telescope
(click on picture to see full size)
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Supernova Hunting |
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Image of a Supernova by an AAI Member Clif Ashcraft (click
on picture to open page with more images)
Animated Image of a Supernova by an AAI
Member Dr. Dale Gary
(click
on picture to see full size)
Email excerpt from Dr. Dale Gary to the Research Committee
Dated: Mon, 11 Jul 2005 17:16:11 +0000
Here is a blinking gif of the M51 supernova made from two images that I
took. The pre-event is 11 May 2005, and the image showing the supernova
is from 3 July 2005. The pre-event is a 40 minute exposure, so it looks
a lot better. The other was shot just before going into the trees, so
it is only a few minutes exposure. Regards,
Dale
For latest SNE News click below
International Supernovae
Network
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How can I contribute |
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We are busily doing research. COME AND JOIN US!!!
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If you‘d like to contribute or participate to the Research Committee please contact Allen Malsbury | |
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