Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Wed, 11/12/2014 - 12:58

Some good news, and some bad news.  I'll start with the bad!

The automated pipeline has not been updating the flat fields for this system, even though the calibration images were taken.  We don't know for sure how far back this problem goes, but probably most of the images taken this year were processed with old flats.  As far as I can tell, the applied flats were actually pretty good and easily take care of the vignetting pattern. If you want really precise photometry, you may want to redo your processing - at least for a night or two to see if you find any differences.  We are updating the pipeline to do things properly, and will let you know when we start reprocessing older data.  In the meantime, we've reprocessed all November data.

Now the good news.  After the mount refurbishment this summer, and some optical adjustments by John Gross, SRO50 is obtaining some of its best images ever.  I'd consider it as good a half-meter telescope as is available to anyone.  If you have a project that needs 30-40arcmin field and a reasonably large aperture, I highly recommend using this telescope.  We have UBVIgri filters in the wheel.  The mount gives round images for 5 minute exposures, and we've had good luck even for 7-10 minute subs.

Arne