New forum sections for science applications?

[nakbrooks]

Would there be support for creating a new section within the forum for Science applications of ASA equipment?

 

The current emphasis of the forum seems to be very much astro-photography, but I am sure that others, like me, would be interested in using ASA equipment for broader scientific purposes as well.

 

Possibly a new section called "Science" with sub-sections for:

 

-  "Photometry" (e.g. transiting exoplanets, variable stars, eclipsing binaries, etc)

-  "Astrometry" (e.g. asteroid and minor planets)

-  "Spectroscopy" (e.g. solar and stellar spectra)

 

Although there are specialist Yahoo groups already for these topics they tend to be for advanced users and are a bit cliquey.  It would be really good to enable amateur ASA users who want to use their equipment for science purposes to compare notes and help each other here. 

 

If there is reasonable support for this then maybe ASA would add the new sections?

 

Nigel

[admin]

Hi Nigel,

 

thank you for your intput. If there are enough users who are interested in this topic, we can talk about to open a special section for this here.

 

Who is working in this fields and would welcome a subforum for this topic?

 

Best regards,

Michael

[nakbrooks]

No responses so maybe no other forum members plan to do science work

[GeorgeCarey]

I would like to do some serious work, but I have no real idea how to start.

I have some friends who do variable star work but that does not interest me much.

I am interested in comets and asteroids, but do not know how to do scientific work.

[nakbrooks]

Sounds like we're in a very similar position George.  While I'm interested in astro-photography, having recently retired I am looking for the intellectual challenge of doing some science, and I also feel a bit guilty about having spent so much on what would otherwise purely be a somewhat self-indulgent hobby!

 

Like you I didn't know where to start but have found an excellent source of information is "The Sky is your Laboratory" by Robert K Buchheim (ISBN 978-0-387-71822-4).  My specific immediate interest is exoplanet detection (using the transit method) and a great introduction to that can be found in Bruce Gary's e-book (http://brucegary.net/book_EOA/ExoplanetObservingAmateurs2ndEdition.zip).

 

I have yet to start any serious work as my new observatory is still being commissioned, but I look forward to spending some time on this through the summer.

 

It is clear from what I have read that if you have the equipment to do good astrophotography then you already have everything you need to do science work.  Indeed much science work is less demanding of equipment than astrophotography - in particular small CCDs are fine and CCD flaws don't cause a problem.  The challenge is in the technique - it requires great attention to detail.  Any background in the experimental sciences would be ideal, but anyone who has patience and a naturally methodical mind can quickly pick it up I believe.  I'm currently doing an Open University degree in Astronomy and Planetary Science, but that level of expertise is by no means necessary (and I've only just started the degree anyway, 44 years after my last qualifications - which were rather unimpressive A levels).

 

I was hoping that the ASA forums could act as a self-help group for those who might be interested but are a bit intimidated by mixing it with the experts in the Yahoo forums.

 

Nigel

[lukepower]

Hi all,

 

I am also planning on doing some astrometry in the future - that is, once my observatory is up and running smoothly. I actually dream of a halfway automated setup, taking exposures and feeding Pinpoint to get some useful data out of it. I think that a dedicated forum section could help everybody

[w0mbat]

Hi all,

I too would like to do something "useful" with my ASA equipment when I feel I am ready and experienced enough. While I spent many years in a scientific research environment as a technician, I have similar feelings to those expressed by some others here in that I am not sure what to do and how to get started. I think the new forum section is a good idea in that it may give me some ideas of which direction to head in.

Ian

[wemartin]

Hi to All,

 

If there is sufficient interest in doing 'real' science with ASA equipment then there are a very large number of projects that can take advantage of the singular attributes of small, dedicated telescopes.  You should be aware that doing science with a small telescope will require a degree of commitment and dedication that may come as a bit of a shock.  I am part of a survey team doing follow-up photometry on a large group of type M Dwarf stars using small telescopes.  We are using 3-4 40cm telescopes in the really very bad conditions of the UK to do absolute and differential photometry on about 500 Northern stars ( Southern stars...w0mbat??) in a new database.  It will take the best part of a year to complete this and it may not be successful if we cannot produce high quality data.  The latter is not so much equipment dependent as it is on having good photometric conditions...a real problem here.

 

The kind of experience one needs to do this particular study could be gained from successfully capturing exoplanet transits.   One of the things I am responsible for at the University of Hertfordshire is encouraging non-professional astronomers to join in projects like the above.  We have a large number of projects that are simply too long for students to undertake that could be done with small telescopes but, be aware that many of the projects involve 'staring' at an object for long periods, i.e. taking a series of exposures over days to months...this is where small telescopes can go that large telescopes cannot (economically).

 

From my own experience I would recommend very strongly that your equipment should be capable of nearly autonomous operation...you will need to sleep once in a while.  Exoplanet transits are a good training exercise.  If you don't have the patience for these then you may wish ponder how much time more challenging targets may take.

 

Free advice, it's worth the price...

 

Bill

[nakbrooks]

Thanks for that Bill. Exoplanet transit detection is where I would plan to start, so that accords with your advice. I'm hoping that my observatory will be pretty autonomous (it needs to be as it is in the Pyrenees and I am in Wiltshire) so, if all goes well when fully commissioned, I hope to be in a position to do some useful stuff.

[Josch]

Hi,

there seems to be no further action on this.

I am not a fan of fora as one needs to look what is new. I am not very often visitng the ASA forum. I liked better the old way of getting e-mails from groups. But anyway, I am doing science (photometry of variable stars) since I use ASA mounts (started in 2009). I have a remote observatory under prinstine skies and average 300+ nights of observatons. I like the ASA mounts although I went true many struggles with them and even had to exchange my remote mount due to problems.

Since then it works fine (99.99%). I average 30 stars and 500 observations a night, hence 500+ slews. I do not think any other design than a direct drive mount would be able to do so over years. All is controlled via CCDCommander and I sleep or work most of the time the observatory is in operation.

 

Regards,

 

Josch

[w0mbat]

Hi Josch,

I wonder why this has not happened. What is there to loose? It will either turn out to be used/useful or not. Why not give it a go? So I would like to suggest to the forum administrators that they add a "science applications" section and then we will see what happens.

Ian