[Aavso-photometry] Exposures for automated AAVSO observing

[Richard Campbell]

Hi Brian,
I run partially unattended and my strategy is to take a series of 15 to 25 
30 second images for most stars. That gives me the option
of median combining in groups of 3 or 5 , averaging or summing images , 
depending on their brightness or conditions. I can image
unguided with those short exposures, needs only 1 set of darks and it gives 
a  pretty good range of magnitude coverage. The drawback
is processing takes longer.

Clear skies,
Dick Campbell CMP



--------------------------------------------------
From: "R. Brian Potter" <potterrb at comcast.net>
Sent: Sunday, July 27, 2008 1:36 PM
To: <aavso-photometry at mira.aavso.org>
Subject: [Aavso-photometry] Exposures for automated AAVSO observing

> Hi All,
>
> I have been experimenting with CCD Autopilot for automating my observing
> runs.  The program works fantastic for automating tasks like taking darks,
> biases, and dawn flats. It is built primarily for astrophotographers,
> however, and requires that exposure times be specified for each target in
> your observing run.  This is difficult for VSOing, as the optimal exposure
> time varies with airmass and with the current magnitude of the target.
>
> Is there a way to calculate reasonable exposure times for variable stars 
> in
> advance, perhaps based on images of a standard field and recent 
> observations
> of the target for a given filter?  I am working primarily with Mira-type
> variable stars, where I will be hopping from field to field and taking a
> number of images of each in one or more filters.  I suppose this could 
> also
> apply to light curve photometry of faster varying stars, if the potential
> range of the light curve were reasonably known.
>
> As a professional with a day job in another field, saving sleep time is
> quite an important problem for me at the moment...any thoughts would be 
> most
> appreciated!
>
> Thanks and Clear skies,
>
> Brian Potter (PRV)
> Plymouth, MI
>
>
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