2014 Eta Car Spectroscopy Campaign

Tue, 07/16/2013 - 15:19

 

I ran across this the other day and think that readers of this forum in the southern hemisphere might be interested in it.

Just a quick disclaimer that I am not a part of this campaign.  I don't necessarilly agree with how they are running it or have presented it.  But I think it could be a good opportunity for non-professional spectroscopists in the southern hemisphere to participate in a professional project, which is why I'm sharing it here so you all know about it.

The link with the information about the campaign, what they are looking for, and how to get involved is here:

http://etacar2014.wdfiles.com/local--files/start/etacar2014.pdf

One aspect of this that isn't dicussed in much detail in that proposal is the sun-angle.  Eta Car is at conjunction with the Sun in August.  That will make observations of Eta Car challenging in July-August-September.  But most of you with your own scopes don't have an altitude limit like the large professional scopes do.  You will follow something all the way to the horizon if you can.  And in that respect ammeteurs with the right rig may have an easier time getting critical observations at those times.

They are looking mainly for medium or high resolution spectroscopy.  They identify wavelength regions they are most interested in.  And Eta is a bright target now (V ~ 4.7) with some bright emission lines that will show up a good signal-to-noise in relatively modest exposure lengths.  If any of you are interested and not getting the support you need from this team, I'm happy to be a resource and consult with you about how to do the observations.

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
All non-professional observers are welcome

Dear uis01,

I really appreciate that you've posted this message to share with the AAVSO community. Also, I would like to say that anyone is welcome to join, comment, suggest, or criticize the etacar2014 campaing. We intend to improve the campaing text through the collaboration of many people around the world, professionals and non-professionals.

As of now, we have the assistance from Bernard Heathcote regarding the contact with the non-professional observers. Evidently, the observations from the non-professional individuals will be especially important for the next event because, as you mentioned, they might have access to observations of the post-event phase, which will be crucial to some spectral features, e.g He II 4686.

Therefore, I would be more than happy if you could join us for the forthcoming observations. And that is valid to everyone that want to observe eta Carinae during the next 2 years from now.

Finally, I would like to say that we certainly will provide support/consult to everyone that contact us, independently of joining the campaing.

Best regards,

Mairan Teodoro