From: Michael Koppelman <lolife
Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2006 14:42:38 -0600
Cc: chris
	Required)

Since we are discussing the basics let me throw in a couple quick  
rules of thumb.

1. Take a lot of bias frames. This is essentially a dark frame at  
zero time. You may not need these but you'll be glad you have them if  

2. Take a lot of dark frames. If you scale darks, you just need them  
at your longest exposure (or longer). If you don't scale you need to  
take darks for every exposure length from the night. I've found you  
can get away with less darks if they are longer. For example, for 180  
second darks between 5 and 16 is plenty. For 10 sec darks, go ahead  
and take 25+.

3. Take flat fields in each color. Do this at the end of the night  
shirt or a flat screen or a light box or the clouds or the twilight/ 
dawn sky for your flats. Do more than one method if you have time and  
divide one by the other and notice differences.

4. Take more than one (read: many) exposures of each object. If you  
do this you gain a lot of benefits such as eliminating cosmic rays,  
being able to average the observations, being able to calculate the  
deviation of the standard stars, etc.

The two (2) golden rules for me are:

1. Take your time: this is science. Be careful, thoughtful and precise.
2. Have fun! This is for your personal growth. The data points are a  
side benefit.

This is not the gospel according to Michael by any means, just some  
brief thoughts on what has worked for me.

Michael
http://www.lolife.com/astronomy/


On Mar 30, 2006, at 2:10 PM, BailyHill

> We rely on the commercial tools.   Ones that are most popular are  
> Maxim,
> AIP4Win, IRAF and Mira.

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