For Science!

[hobbit]

Question.
What sort of research can an amateur with a mid sized refractor and relatively cheap mount do other than measure variable stars which I really have little interest in?

[Merlin66]

Hobbit,
The obvious answer is to try spectroscopy.
Even a basic grating will provide useful data on objects like nova and SN.
If you want more info drop me a PM.

[Blue Skies]

Occultations - just about any sort of scope will do! But you do need to invest in some gear to hang off the back, though.

There is a visual comet observing campaign running as well, I think I recall its a NASA program, and there are several aussies already involved with this. Perhaps someone else can fill us in with some info on it.

[ZeroID]

I put my name down for the comet 'job' but from the details they have recently provided they are looking for people with experience and documented comet hunting experience. High end amateurs. Enrolment is finished anyway. Selection of the 'few' is taking place now.

[Blue Skies]

That's interesting. I didn't realise they were going to be that finicky about it. Oh well. People can still do their own observing and keep personal records of what they see, you never know when it might be valuable.

[hobbit]

Thanks for the replies

[Ric]

Hi Hobbit

Something else to think about would be the measurement of Double Stars.

As to where to send the measurements is another thing, I have researched the net for organisations etc, who would use this type of data but it has only thrown up dead ends so far.

I would like to know if anyone has an idea of who uses this data as I have some measurements that could be of use.

Cheers

[Eratosthenes]

There is the "Scientific Journal dedicated to Double Star observations". You can contact them, or even put together a detailed article for them to review and publish etc.
http://www.jdso.org/

Another good port of call is the International Association of Double Star Observers.
http://www.iadso.org/index.html

There are quite a few people interested in double stars around the world. If you have discovered something new in your data, publishing it is a good way of sharing the knowledge and obtaining some recognition for your work. Also it will enable you to determine if your data or observations are novel

cheers

[Julian]

It would be interesting to get into, I know the the Astronomical Society in Brisbane does it,(AAQ it's called),using software, but I believe that good data can be obtained from Astrometric eyepieces also.
That's if melbourne's weather changes

[Eratosthenes]

Melbourne's weather always changes

[Rob_K]

I think you might be referring to the PACA (Pro-Am Collaborative Astronomy) Facebook comet groups, and specifically the 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko collaboration in association with the Rosetta Mission. I don't know if NASA has its own portal into the group/s, maybe that's where you encountered this.

I'm a member of several but about low-end as you can get, 4.5" Tasco reflector and a DSLR & lens! :P The only qualifications are that you're interested and that you can provide some original data be it visual observations or images, up to the 'high-end' of photometry, astrometry, hi-res spectra etc. I don't know of any selection process (or I certainly wouldn't have made it! :rolleyes: ), size limits or enrolment deadlines - the groups are very friendly and encouraging of all levels of participation. However they are Closed groups because they kept getting 'spammed' with general astronomy stuff, diluting the comet stuff - they are special interest after all.

If you're still keen (or anyone in IIS who's keen for that matter) and can contribute something, pm me and I'll put you forward. 67P will be a difficult one though, just starting to rise in southern morning skies now and it will remain a faint, low and difficult target right through till perihelion. But better in the south than north and I know they're keen on getting southern observers involved. :thumbsup:

There is also a PACA group for transients like novae, supernovae, dwarf novae etc. Again closed but I forgot to step back when they wanted co-admins so I can actually let you in! ;) Search FB for PACA_Transients.

Getting back to the OP, comet visual observing is something that is easy to do and is valuable to science. Light curves composed of hundreds and even thousands of individual observations of a comet submitted by amateurs all over the world are permanent records of the behaviour of a comet. The more observations, the better and more accurate the light curve.

Cheers -

[Ric]

Hi Peter

Thanks for the links, I'll check them out.

Cheers