Browse az-observing: This Month's Archive • Main Archive Page • Related posts • Previous by Date • Next by Date

[AZ-Observing] Re: NY40 viewing at Lowell

From: "Howard C. Anderson" <handy13@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: az-observing <az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 18 Aug 2002 16:23:03 -0700

Hi Brian,

Thanks for your earlier information regarding getting a current element 
set for
2002 NY40.   Using that element set and Megastar made it very easy to
capture the asteroid with the ST-7.

I was then able to make a movie from the captured frames.  The movie is 
out at
    http://www.astroshow.com/ccdpho/ccdpho.htm
under "Movies".  The movie includes two telescope positions with the 
asteroid
crossing the frames at those positions.

I see you were wondering about the brightness variations.  I wondered 
also.  I have the original
frames that I took.  I assume brightness information with respect to 
time could be derived from those
frames if anyone is interested.

Clouds interferred but was able to get pretty good images as it 
skittered across the sky.

Rather lengthy project to make the movie.  Used almost everything. 
Megastar, CCDSoft,
ImCap (which I wrote that controls LX-200), AIP4Win, Paint Shop Pro, 
Animation Shop 3,
etc.  Megastar really helped.  I was able to move the telescope remotely 
(using Megastar for
the coordinates and ImCap to move the telescope) to the next place
where the Asteroid would enter the corner of the frame.  The asteroid 
would show up just
as predicted.  Left the CCD camera in auto-shoot mode so that it took 5 
second exposures
then 15 second downloads.  When the asteroid would leave the current 
frame, I would move
the telescope remotely to the next appropriate point.  Got more frames 
than are in the movie
but not too many without clouds.  The 5 second exposures meant that the 
asteroid left a short
trail since it was really moving fast.  (I was using f/3.3 focal 
reducer...)

Thanks,

Howard

Brian Skiff wrote:

    We had reasonably clear weather and good Saturday night public-viewing
crowd at Lowell Observatory on Mars Hill tonight.  ...

-- 

Thanks,

Howard     (in Tempe, Arizona)
http://www.astroshow.com


--
This message is from the AZ-Observing mailing list.  See this message's
header if you want info about unsubscribing or the list's archive.

This is a discussion list.  Please send personal inquiries directly to
the message author.  In other words, do not use "reply" for personal
messages.  Thanks.

[AZ-Observing] Re: NY40 viewing at Lowell

Other related posts: