Doing real science in Video Astronomy

[shahgazer (Shah)]

Hi guys,

Video astronomy is really knocking doors worldwide. Superb devices
such as mallincams, stellacams, gstarex, have created a such high
standard,no doubt about that. Myself, I've been using Mintron since 2003, and Mallincams till today. These things are great educational tools.

But recently, I got this killer question from one of onlookers during
a stargazing session asking me "What kind of REAL science can these
video do? " It caught me with my pants down really, because I never
really gave much thought on it as well . Can anyone help me give some
idea for a really good answer?

I have managed to get some answers from videoastro group members, as listed below. Maybe anyone here can add anymore ideas?

1. Double star astrometry
2. Lunar impact observation
3. Timing occultations with GPS time inserter
4. Lunar meteor strikes
5. Planetary transit
6. Occultation (asteroid on stars, lunar on planets)
7. Jupiter & Saturn satellite eclipses, transits, occultations.
8. Measuring shape of satellite shadows
9. Solar observations - sunspot, prominences
10. Timelapse video on planetary rotation.
11. Discovery of supernova, comets, planetary storms,
12. Speckle interferometry
13. Meteor imaging
14. Aurora
15. Seeking thin cresent moon
16. Lunar transient phenomena
17. Sunrise and Sunset Crater Rays

Thanks.

[iceman (Mike)]

I think that's a pretty comprehensive list there Shah!

For myself, at this stage in my "obsession", i'm happy to get 3 things out of my astrophotography:

1. An aesthetically pleasing image to be able to share with others
2. Knowledge that I can share with others (capture/processing tips etc)
3. Contribute to science

For #3, at the moment i'm not undertaking the scientific study of my images myself, but I'm happy to be contributing my images to people like John Rogers at the BAA, and other ALPO lists, as well as sites like LPOD, so my images can be studied as part of a large group of submissions to find features or highlight views not regularly seen.

That might include hi-res images of the moon under very good seeing, or hi-res images of Jupiter, including animated gifs showing rotation of features, transits and occultations of the moons, etc.

I was one of the first to image in hi-res the merger of the WSY/WSZ spots on Jupiter a few months ago.

Everyone might get something different out of their astrophotography.. for some a pleasing image is all they're after. For others, they might capture or process in a way where the science that can be derived is the #1 goal.

I guess as long as you're having fun, that's all that matters.

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

My Uni assignment for first semester this year was to measure the change in rotational rate of system II on Jupiter. You guessed it. I used a ToUcam to map the change of postitions of the GRS over a 30 day period.

[xelasnave]

Time lapse of planetary neb over a century or two would be neat and maybe tell us more as a result of following the outgoing materials, however I think one may need to have other bands covered beside visual to make it useful. Similar time lapse of our closest neighbours LMC and SMC would possibly show movements that would indicate something... but even a century may not be long enough I imagine and of course the researchers engaged would have to start very early in their careers to draw conclusions before they passed away. I saw a Hubble time lapse and it was eiry to see the pulsing of the neb.
alex
alex

[shahgazer (Shah)]

Thanks for the feedback guys, . The list covers quiet a lot really. Hi-res imaging of the moon also seems to be interesting, especially involving phenomena like the sunrise & sunset craters rays.

Yes, and as Mike said, as long as it is fun, it should keep us going and along the way some nice scientific discoveries should pop up somewhere.

Moreover, nowadays, data comes in all types and sizes. There's no way we can find out all there's need to find from the set of data we have. In the future, when new software technology emerges, who knows, maybe from our old image and video collection, we can actually make new discoveries..

[ving (David)]

any pictures take thru these devises can be used to do astrometric calculations of double stars thru a program called reduc. yuo can also make other measurements too.