Instrumentation and Equipment

Hi All

I have been able to generate some B,V,R transformation coefficients for the S50.  I outline the steps briefly as follows:

1. Coefficients are based on images of the standard field for NGC 3532.  This is quite a crowded field with a large number of standard stars so I reduced the number to avoid stars close together, etc.

I have just purchased a Player One IMX533 mono camera to replace my CCD and would appreciate a recommendation on optimal mode and gain settings for BVRI photometry.  This is the 'baby' version of the IMX571.

All sensor characteristic charts can be found here:  https://player-one-astronomy.com/product/ares-m-pro-usb3-0-mono-camera-imx533/

Curious if anyone is using an Aluma AC4040 camera?  Have questions. 

Thanks, Mike

For years I have used a fixed-gain CCD camera, first an Sbig ST-10, then QSI 532, both with the wonderful Kodak KAF-3200M chip.  The 532 has died, and finding a QSI 632 on the market, which also has the same chip, I bought it only to discover that it operates with either a high (.9) or Low (2) gain setting instead of the fixed 1.29 of the prior cameras, bringing an unwanted complexity to my program.

I went back and watched the AAVSO Webinar on using DSLRs and the presenter, Dr. Barbara Harris, talked about her experience using a Canon 400D (IIRC) and the 18-55mm zoom kit lens to take images of bright stars with no tracking.  I have some questions additional questions to ask anyone in the community who ever used camera lenses for photometric work.

Hi, folks,

The solar eclipse this weekend got me thinking:: does anyone know if it's possible to do solar observing with the eVscope or Stellina telescopes by putting a neutral density filter on the top of one of them?

Or as small telescopes with CMOS detectors, maybe they can even handle looking at the Sun.  I wouldn't want to try this without real assurance, but I'm wondering if anyone knows about that.

I will soon be receiving a Dwarf II telescope (see: https://dwarflab.com/products/dwarf-2-smart-telescope) to evaluate for variable star imaging.

1) If any reader has experience using this system, please reach out! Advice is welcome.

2) If readers would like to have certain variables imaged. Please send me your (hopefully short) list.

I'll post progress here, and will share FITS files with folks who use VPhot.

Peter

BPEC

I am considering the FLI KL400 for my exoplanet photometry work and I was wondering if anyone here has had any good or bad experiences with it that they would like to share.  Anything would be helpful.

Ed

I finally have my Skywatcher EQ6-R PRO mount.

Talking to some imaging contacts, they seem to think this mount is not up to a Celestron C11 for astrophotography.

However PEP with Optec SSP3 (with its 30s integrations) is of course more forgiving than AP.

Is there anyone out there who is doing PEP on this or similar Skywatcher mounts with a C11.

The spec does claim up to 20kg load for AP. C11 OTA is 12.5kg and SSP3 adds another 1.5kg from memory so it seems well within limits to me.

This is a project for you Astro Makers out there: Astronomers who like to make things to improve their observing experience.

The WeatherBox project is a sensor package that you can deploy near your observatory site and that can report back to you the local weather conditions. This report can be used to generate programmatically a safety signal when it is urgent that you close your observatory because of inclement weather.