Pro-Am Collaboration

[higginsdj]

Originally Posted by fringe_dweller

Glenn, you have to add extra-solar planet detection to that list these days, would you not?
I remember a thread about some amateur Kiwi's discovering? or confirming one? or is that quite common these days?

That would be Jennie McCormick of Farm Cove Observatory near Auckland. She was one of the observers in the Microfun team that discovered it. I'm a member of that same team now and maybe one day I'll be lucky enough to score one.

There are very few amateurs observing extra solar planets via Gravitational Microlensing but there are a few doing followup photometry via the Transitsearch team.

Again - there is no reason why amateurs can dive into this work from an observing perspective - neither observing effort takes rocket science - just confidence in your equipment and a good observing ethic!

Cheers

[fringe_dweller]

Originally Posted by higginsdj

That would be Jennie McCormick of Farm Cove Observatory near Auckland. She was one of the observers in the Microfun team that discovered it. I'm a member of that same team now and maybe one day I'll be lucky enough to score one.

There are very few amateurs observing extra solar planets via Gravitational Microlensing but there are a few doing followup photometry via the Transitsearch team.

Again - there is no reason why amateurs can dive into this work from an observing perspective - neither observing effort takes rocket science - just confidence in your equipment and a good observing ethic!

Cheers

ah thats the one David, thanks!

one factor, and its not critical in all area's of course, is that maybe 80+% of aussie amateur astronomers live in light polluted to very light polluted locations, I know this to be at least a problem re *proper* comet and meteor, aurorae visual obs. and the LP and urban sprawl just gets worse everyyear of course, and we have to undertake ever further drives to escape it. Its the country people in the box seat for all this stuff, but they seem to care the least??? *generally speaking* and IMO - to busy just surviving maybe?

[higginsdj]

Light pollution may be an issue for some visual observations but I live in and observe from Canberra Suburbia as does several other ProAm collaborators and it's not a huge factor for the type of work we do:

Minor Planet Photometry
Minor Planet Astrometry
Planetary Moon Astrometry
Occultation (Lunar and Asteroidal)
Sky Survey (Comet, Nova and Variable Star hunting)
Supernovae Search
Planetary Imaging
Stellar Photometry (Variable Stars and Extra Solar planets)

The list could probably go on. Yes I'm on the outskirts of Canberra but the others aren't! The point is, you do what you can.

Cheers

[fringe_dweller]

I did allude that I was aware that it isnt critical in many area's David just the ones I am interested in.
I dont want to go off topic, but waay back, when I was a very active visual planetary observer, I always thought that even the planets were much better when viewed from under dark and dust particle pollutant and heatsink conditions free country skies, colours in particular were better. not that that has anything to do with this subject, just an observation.
My former longtime residence was also a edge of suburbia type location, and altho i'm still not in the city exactly now, I fnd here its a loooong way from what I had with that previous backyard.
Also i fear that no-one will say an obvious reason why they dont get into pro-am, is it is that dreaded four letter word - W-O-R-K, and unpaid at that, I suspect that for most AA's, their time out under the stars is escape and release from W-O-R-K and daily presures (exept for imagers of all kinds LOL ) thats it in a nutshell really?
cheers

[higginsdj]

LOL, but thats where an automated observatory comes into its own (and when is a hobby ever work :-) )

I work full time+ and have the observatory open 1000+ hrs a year - and I don't lose any sleep. Technology is opening up so many opportunities to the amateur these days.

Cheers

[rogerg (Roger)]

Agreed, automation works wonders for achieving more astronomy for you available time. I still hit the limit though of having enough time to script the automation and process the resulting images. It's often hard to find enough time to build enough scripts to automate enough nights to take advantage of the clear nights.

Perhaps that just means I need better automation - automate some of the scripting and automate some of the processing

[higginsdj]

I guess it depends on the automation software and your targets. I have predefined scripts that run Plans for my variable stars and my SN work. For my Minor Planets those targets change weekly and takes 30 seconds to change the MP number from one to the next (autolookup out of MPCORB.dat). For the adhocs - just a modified Minor Planet plan to a name and co-ordinate. The software takes care of everything else!

Of course the data processing takes time. the 60-80 variables from a session take about 4-5 hrs to reduce. Each Minor Planet target takes about 15 minutes for each session and the others just use 1 or 2 scripts to calibrate then either mail off (Microfun) or sit and compare to dss images (about 30 seconds per target). Variables are the most time consuming and they are limited to 1 set per month (when the Moon doesn't allow me to do my MP photometry). The rest takes up an average of 2 hours per week....

Note that I use ACP4 for my automation.

Cheers

David

[rogerg (Roger)]

I suppose most of my problem comes from the type of targets I'm trying for. It takes me something like 30 mins - an hour to look through TheSky and find a field of galaxies I like the look of. Copying, pasting & then altering a script takes another 10min or so.

Relating back to the thread topic, my targets aren't useful for pro-am collaboration where as yours are. So perhaps for the purpose of pro-am collaboration automation tools are sufficient to significantly cut scripting & processing (to a lesser extent the latter).

I haven't looked in to ACP4, but just found their site, the buy page, and figure I'll avoid it and stick to CCD Commander for now, save my pennies. But I do appreciate that the cost is possibly offset by time savings.

[higginsdj]

Also note that there are various flavours of ACP4. I have the basic license - single user, non web.

[rogerg (Roger)]

Something else that significantly slows me down is the small size of my imaging chip and my guide chip. I either have to be very confident of the field or do a test-run of scripted objects to ensure there will be a suitable guide star available. I can't not have one for 20 - 40 min exposures and if I get it wrong the night's a waste because it fails and then parks for the rest of the night

Hmm. Anyway.

Re price of automation software, yes, $349 I think it was, is quite affordable for such a setup. Still, in contrast I think I paid $50 for CCD Commander. I expect you get what you pay for.

[higginsdj]

My setup is more predictable. The 14" SCT is operated at f/4 with an ST-8E and a Meade f/3.3 FR (at f/10 for MicroFun targets). Attached is a 4" SCT operating at f/6.3 with a Starlight Xpress MX716 used as a guider.

The Guider has enough resolution and light gathering to always get a guide star and the ST-8E fov is always big enough to have a near perfect plate solve (it has a hick-up ever now and then) to synch and repoint to center the target.

Even with 120" PE (reduced to ~20" with PEC) at f/10 I can mostly get round stars at up to 300 second integrations (but I prefer to stack shorter, 120 second integrations just to make sure and not waste any images)

Cheers

[fringe_dweller]

Yes but its work (and money) to get to that point of automation isnt it?

I have nothing but the upmost respect and admiration for AA's like yourself David, that are giving it a red hot go In another life maybe i would give it go, but not this one unfortunately. Meanwhile I will just enjoy reading about ect., and observing/admiring some of the discoveries from the advanced amateurs
regards

[higginsdj]

7 years ago when I first started astronomy, I bought a Tasco 114mm reflector - it's all I could afford. Not long after I was eyeing off all the goto scopes thinking I would never be able to buy one (I didn't even know about CCD cameras back then) - I'm now 4 goto scopes on from there...... (and still married )

It's interesting what events and opportunities can transpire when one takes a step down a certain path... The impossible sometimes becomes possible

Right now I am eyeballing a Meade 20" RCX on a MaxMount with a 2kx2k Back illuminated AP camera (about $50-$60K) At this point its way out of my league - but who knows, there might be some kind benefactor out there .

Cheers