New member looking for a challenge

[pcaspa]

Hi All,

I just joined, I’ve been into astronomy for about 3 years. I’ve just finished my backyard observatory with my home brew 8” f6 Newt + SAC8 camera. Just imaged Eris (2003 UB313) the other day at mag 18.8. I’m having fun with my new fixed setup but what else can I do with it? I’m in the process of set it up for automated asteroid hunting but the chances of discovering one these days is remote.

So can anyone suggest something more constructive I can do with this setup rather than take pics of thing that have been imaged many time before my many others. Not that thats something I don’t enjoy doing anyway. Are there any co-operative projects happening within the Iceinspace community?

Cheers
Peter

[ballaratdragons]

Hi Peter. Welcome.

There is probably a lot of searching and discovering you can do in the Southern Hemisphere skies as they haven't been completely mapped yet.

Because I am into Galaxy hunting, I seem to find a few galaxies that aren't labelled on any maps yet. They are extremely faint and very tiny, but atleast I am finding them. The area I have found many unmapped tiny faint galaxies is in Doradus.

Discovery of wandering asteroids is a possibility, and Professional Astronomers need all the eyes they can get looking for them. They can't cover all the sky all the time :thumbsup:

[astroron]

Hi Peter there is also Supernova searching, with your scope getting down to 18th mag, and the majority of S/N searchers in the northern hemisphere, there is plenty of room for southern based discoveries.
Ron

[Ric]

Hi Peter, welcome to IIS. I hope you have a great time here.
There are a great many projects that you can get involved in. I am in the process of setting up my SN search program and as Ron said there is still a lot of scope for discovery in the southern hemisphere.

As a part of your asteroid search program you may want to include comet hunting as well, there are a few members who are active comet hunters and they will no doubt be able to offer advice in this area.

Cheers

[higginsdj]

An 8" scope with a SAC 8 imaging to mag 18.8???? How long were your exposures?

To be frank you are wasting your time hunting for new asteroids unless you can get to mag 20+ in under 2 minutes BUT you can chance the rare Comet or NEO that every sky survey may have missed. Personally I think there are other avenues that you could better put your equipment and time to. NEO or new discovery follow-up work (NEO's and Comets), Giant Planet moon astrometry (I think Dave Herald is the only one in the world currently doing this work and the MPC wants the data), minor Planet photometry (differential is fine but I think the 8" is just way too small to be of much use here since signal is important).

Brighter AAVSO variable stars might be a good start to sink you Photometry teeth into until you are ready to take on moving targets. Don't just pick any target. I would advise doing a search on those stars that are "In need of" observation. There is an AAVSO bulletin published each year listing these targets.

An SN search is doable though you will need to concentrate on nearby galaxies I don't think you can expect to image down to mag 18.8 on all your images as I think you are likely "playing" in the noise. I have a paper that may be of interest to you that should assist in working out which galaxies you should limit such a search to. (http://www.david-higgins.com/Astronomy/study/P037-HET604-DHiggins.pdf)

Cheers

[pcaspa]

Hi again

Thanks for your responses, you've given me food for thought. As far as how I got Mag 18.8 it was about 20 x 5 sec exposures and yes I'm playing in the noise. I'd realistically be getting Mag 17ish as part of an automated search with maybe 1 square degree of coverage per night. Yes I'd be pushing it uphill for asteroid hunting. There seems to be minimal surveys down < -60 Deg Dec. Slim pickings but might be my best chance?

higginsdj - your site is great, Very useful. What is Giant Planet moon astrometry. Jupiter and Saturns moons? What does the astrometry of these bodies help with?

Still not sure what I'm doing but thanks again.

Peter

[higginsdj]

Hi Peter,

Yes, astrometry of Jupiter and Saturns moons. Until Dave Herald took it up, no one had done any observations of their orbits. Have the orbits changed, how? are they still there etc The Minor Planet Centre was terribly grateful that someone took up the challenge. (and it is not an easy task but they may be beyond your setup as Dave was delving to Mag 20+ on his 14")

20 x 5 seconds..... in 120 seconds, on a perfect night my 14" might just detect a mag 19 object with the CCD cooled to -45c if I stretched it hard enough - but then I still couldn't be sure without measuring its position and motion! I think you might have been chasing a hot pixel, Cosmic ray hit or noise. I agree that mag 17 would likely be your absolute usable limit for a 8" scope.

Cheers