As I mentioned in the previous Blog it is time for exoplanets again.
What is an exoplanet (or extrasolar planet)? It is a planet that is in an orbit around a star other than our own Sun :)
I received a few days ago, along with the other Searchlight Observatory Network Observatories, the agreed list of targets and time table from Professor +Svetlana Berdyugina at Kiepenheuer-Institut für Sonnenphysik .
Svetlana has been observing exoplanets for a number of years. It was Svetlana and her team that discovered, a number of years ago, that a planet (HD 189733b) in orbit around HD 189733 is blue. This was later confirmed this year by Hubble observations.
There are a number of different ways to discover and monitor exoplanets. The current project involves known exoplanets using a technique called Exoplanet Transits. This only works with systems that are near to edge on to us. The observation process involves measuring the change in brightness of the host star when an explanet passes in front of it. The techniques involved are similar to those used for variable star observing. I will write, in the near future, a number of Blogs covering the various methods of discovering and monitoring exoplanets :).
Ideally I should have changed the telescope configuration and started some test runs a few days ago, but after a few months of overall good observing nights the weather changed. We have had clouds, we have icy rain and lots of interuptions with the power.
Yesterday's driving rain stopped me from opening the observatory so with the alarm set early I went up to the observatory to check it out. Apart from a few small wet spots and the need to reset the power everything was OK. It was still fairly cloudy but with holes so I managed to see some stars for the first time in days. It was not suitable for imaging properly but decided to take some images of Comet Lovejoy before changing the configuration.
After these were taken it was time to start to change the configuration.
For the past couple of months the ST8 CCD Camera along with its filter wheel has been on the 4" F4 Pentax refractor and the ST7 CCD Camera was on the C14 F11 SCT.
I now needed to swap the cameras over and also reduce the focal length of the C14 by putting in a focal reducer and once done rebalance the telescope and check that the cable will not get tangled up, (four power cables and four data cables!).
That is the easy bit done! The sky or should I say the clouds stopped most other things being done until this evening and daybreak - providing that it is clear. So hopefully I will be able to refocus the two telescopes and take new sets of dark, flat and bias frames.
N.B. For none astronomers I promise to do a Blog posting in the next few days explaining the reasons why I needed to change the configuration and what are the effects.
There are a number of jobs I can do during the day, some of which are already under way, including producing an observing timetable.
It is now starting to get dark. There are thick clouds on the horizon and thin cloud overhead. Providing the cloud overhead does not get much thicker I will be able to finalise the configuration, otherwise it will be the case of getting up at four in the morning to check if the cloud has gone and if it has to do the finalisation then.
As there will not be much to show image wise with exoplanets, I will be showing images of various objects that I have yet to process, or will be able to take when exoplanet observing is not taking place.
Other work in progress
I am in the middle of getting another observatory up and running. I have building a roll off structure for it and late afternoon we got it up to the observing area ready for cladding. Pictures tomorrow.
The other day
I mentioned in the previous Blog that a drop in power stopped the telescope mount from working for an hour or so. What I did not mention was that the computer and cameras did not stop.
The following image was taken at ten o'clock at night with just moonlight. It will give you an idea of the power of the telescope (4" refractor) and a time controlled CCD camera :) The distance to the buildings is about three miles.
What is an exoplanet (or extrasolar planet)? It is a planet that is in an orbit around a star other than our own Sun :)
I received a few days ago, along with the other Searchlight Observatory Network Observatories, the agreed list of targets and time table from Professor +Svetlana Berdyugina at Kiepenheuer-Institut für Sonnenphysik .
Svetlana has been observing exoplanets for a number of years. It was Svetlana and her team that discovered, a number of years ago, that a planet (HD 189733b) in orbit around HD 189733 is blue. This was later confirmed this year by Hubble observations.
There are a number of different ways to discover and monitor exoplanets. The current project involves known exoplanets using a technique called Exoplanet Transits. This only works with systems that are near to edge on to us. The observation process involves measuring the change in brightness of the host star when an explanet passes in front of it. The techniques involved are similar to those used for variable star observing. I will write, in the near future, a number of Blogs covering the various methods of discovering and monitoring exoplanets :).
Ideally I should have changed the telescope configuration and started some test runs a few days ago, but after a few months of overall good observing nights the weather changed. We have had clouds, we have icy rain and lots of interuptions with the power.
Yesterday's driving rain stopped me from opening the observatory so with the alarm set early I went up to the observatory to check it out. Apart from a few small wet spots and the need to reset the power everything was OK. It was still fairly cloudy but with holes so I managed to see some stars for the first time in days. It was not suitable for imaging properly but decided to take some images of Comet Lovejoy before changing the configuration.
For the past couple of months the ST8 CCD Camera along with its filter wheel has been on the 4" F4 Pentax refractor and the ST7 CCD Camera was on the C14 F11 SCT.
I now needed to swap the cameras over and also reduce the focal length of the C14 by putting in a focal reducer and once done rebalance the telescope and check that the cable will not get tangled up, (four power cables and four data cables!).
That is the easy bit done! The sky or should I say the clouds stopped most other things being done until this evening and daybreak - providing that it is clear. So hopefully I will be able to refocus the two telescopes and take new sets of dark, flat and bias frames.
N.B. For none astronomers I promise to do a Blog posting in the next few days explaining the reasons why I needed to change the configuration and what are the effects.
There are a number of jobs I can do during the day, some of which are already under way, including producing an observing timetable.
It is now starting to get dark. There are thick clouds on the horizon and thin cloud overhead. Providing the cloud overhead does not get much thicker I will be able to finalise the configuration, otherwise it will be the case of getting up at four in the morning to check if the cloud has gone and if it has to do the finalisation then.
As there will not be much to show image wise with exoplanets, I will be showing images of various objects that I have yet to process, or will be able to take when exoplanet observing is not taking place.
Other work in progress
I am in the middle of getting another observatory up and running. I have building a roll off structure for it and late afternoon we got it up to the observing area ready for cladding. Pictures tomorrow.
The other day
I mentioned in the previous Blog that a drop in power stopped the telescope mount from working for an hour or so. What I did not mention was that the computer and cameras did not stop.
The following image was taken at ten o'clock at night with just moonlight. It will give you an idea of the power of the telescope (4" refractor) and a time controlled CCD camera :) The distance to the buildings is about three miles.
