[Aavso-photometry] How many stars can I measure?

[Tim Crawford]

How many stars can I measure?

I think Dave is a bit optimistic, even for a “perfect”
automated system to manage 200 images, at 17 mag in
600 minutes.

I am not automated but do from time to time keep track
of my time “investment.”  So far it has been my
experience that for every single minute of
integration, with a V filter, I have a total time
investment of 4.85 minutes. 

For observations the clock starts when I open the door
to the observatory and stops when I close it; post
observation time for data reduction is measured from
the time I turn on the computer until the observations
are reported to the AAVSO (I do use AIP4WIN).  

Of the 4.85 minutes invested for each minute of
integration approximately 33% of that time is post
observation.  

Number of stars…. Hummmm… well typical sessions run
between four and six hours with the total number of
individual star integrations at somewhere between 8
and 15… mags from 10 to 18.5… all depends. 

I should qualify the above data in that it does not
involve any of the time series sessions with single
stars.... obviously those "runs" will significalty
reduce the time investment and up the production.

I hope Dave will keep us up to date on his automated
set up: equipment, software, time, images, etc… 


Tim Crawford (CTX)
Arch Cape Observatory