[AZ-Observing] Re: Other pictures from Vekol 2 weeks ago

At 19:07 -0700 10/25/04, Brian Skiff wrote:
>      Yes, these are terrific images.  I have an additional reaction,
>however.  The Takahashi astrograph looks like a great instrument to
>do photometric surveys with.  Rather than concentrating on some
>well-known objects, I'd rather (or also) like to see Jon take piles of
>images of star fields along the Milky Way in two filters (the standard
>Johnson B and V or V and R would do) and cover as much sky as you can
>on every clear night you have the time, Moon or no Moon, from the
>city backyard or dark site.  Have somebody who's savvy with photometry
>software churn through the images to produce star-lists with RA/Dec,
>magnitudes, colors, and a date.  Make those lists searchable on the
>Web, so folks interested in variable stars can use the data to produce
>lightcurves and follow new objects as they appear.  Could Gene and/or Jeff
>set up something like that?
>
>\Brian

While I think Brian's idea is great, I must admit I have little CCD 
photometry experience (strictly single channel UBV PEP).  One problem 
I see is that the enormous amount of data that could be produced will 
take a very systematic and dedicated approach. Calibrated faint stars 
would be a big help for others doing CCD photometry. There has been a 
lot of talk about this on the QCUIAG list and one of the big problems 
is accurate faint (fainter than 9th magnitude) comparison or standard 
stars. Also, it seems many if not most of the amateurs doing CCD 
photometry are not using filters.

I think an organized approach to this as per Brian's idea would be 
very well received. I have some software that can handle single 
channel photometry data, but it would require getting the data from 
the CCD software. I'm sure some of the already available CCD 
photometry software would probably work fine, but again, someone with 
experience with it needs to speak up. If my software could be tied in 
with it, it should work fine and also has archiving of both raw and 
reduced data. Anyone interested, please contact me.

Jeff
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Jeff Hopkins
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