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groz
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 03/14/07
Posts: 1071
Loc: Duncan, BC
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So many times, I've listened to folks lamenting about a spouse that has no interest in the astronomy hobby, and wishing she would have at least a little interest. All I can say is, careful what you wish for.
Soooo, I got the sxv-h9 a few months ago, and as you all know, we've had great success measuring exoplanet transits with it. Well, recently chris decided, doing it with my kit is all fine and dandy, but, she wants to do it too. So we started by doing an experiment one night, fast eclipsing binary, I shot with the sxv-h9 in the c8, she shot the same star with the canon 350 in her williams 110. We used nebulosity and had it in the mode of writing separate fits files for each of the 3 colors in the bayer matrix.
Dunno how to attach multiple images to a post, so, I'll do a string of them to flesh out the saga.
First image, the 'quick look' data shooting that nite with the sxv in the c8.
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groz
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 03/14/07
Posts: 1071
Loc: Duncan, BC
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And now, the same night, canon 350 in the williams 110, on the same star, photometry on the green channel. Remember, identical conditions to the above shot.
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groz
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 03/14/07
Posts: 1071
Loc: Duncan, BC
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Suffice it to say, that sort of determined, trying to do precise photometry with the canon 350 in her telescope was going to be an exercise in futility, something better was required. We've been going back and forth for a while, should an upgrade for her from dslr to ccd be a wide field, one shot color, or, another small chip mono camera. 2 weeks ago, during the new moon, I did an experiment, shot a quick mosaic of frames with the sxv on andromeda, 4 panel mosaic, and we stitched it all together using the registar demo, the result was more than acceptable. That was on friday evening, saturday morning, she announced, she wants a sensative monochrome camera so she can do photometry at the level I've been doing, and, she can cure the itch to do wide field pretty pictures by shooting mosaics.
So, that sealed the deal, and another sxv-h9 was scooped up from the astro-buysell website (canadian equivalent to astromart). It arrived on friday, over the weekend she spent some time playing with it, learning how to use it, etc. Last nite, we did the first real 'experiment'. It was an evening with high wispies moving thru, fairly humid, and a near full moon lighting up those high wispies. Not an evening to attempt a pretty picture, and, we dont have all the required filters for hers yet, nor the wheel. The way it's currently mounted, it's just screwed directly onto the 2 inch camera adapter she was using with the dslr. She's left the light pollution filter in, but, there are no color filters of any type yet.
So, we both shot the tres-3b transit last nite. It was scheduled to go into transit just before 9. so I got her going on the setup by 7:30, wanted to make sure she was on target, and shooting by 8. Well, a few cabling problems etc, and it was a little late getting going, but, she was on the target by 8:15, shooting 3 minute exposures. Here's the result after a quick run thru aip4win, no calibration frames, just a quick run to see what kind of data is there to work with.
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groz
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 03/14/07
Posts: 1071
Loc: Duncan, BC
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After we had her kit on target, I decided to shoot the same target with mine, and went to do a quick setup, transit entry was only 40 minutes away at this point. I got everything set up and on target in 10 minutes, but, in the rush to get going, I forgot to change filters, and my wheel has an L filter in the first slot. My first exposure I took a couple minutes, expecting it to be 'close', but, everything was completely blown out. Instead of figuring out why, I just reduced the exposure in half, tried again, still blown out, reduce some more etc. I ended up shooting 25 seconds to keep the star in linear range. About then I realized, it was because I had the wrong filter up, but, transit was only 20 minutes out at this point, I didn't fuss with resetting to the V filter (which would mean re-focussing because my photometric stuff isn't parafocal with the L filter), I just shot this way.
And here's what came out of mine, again, just a quick run thru api4win, no rejection of the noisy frames where the clouds came thru, our goal was a direct comparison of the two kits. And, as you should have noticed by now, it's rather enlightening.
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groz
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 03/14/07
Posts: 1071
Loc: Duncan, BC
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2 mounts
2 telescopes (4 if we count 'before upgades')
2 complete autoguider kits
2 dslrs initially
2 ccd cameras (today)
So, next time you guys start lamenting about the spouse that doesn't partake in the hobby, just consider what happens to the astro toys budget if you have a spouse that not only partakes, but, does so at essentially the same level, and _requires_ equivalent equipment....
Anyways, all joking aside, looking at the data I've posted into this thread, there's some interesting observations to compare things there. In particular the last pair, where we shot at the same target, with very disparate equipment, in the same conditions. There is really something to be said for those 3 minute exposures when I look at the plots, it's got me thinking about lots of nitty gritty math details....
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walt r
Post Laureate
Reged: 02/13/07
Posts: 3458
Loc: Doylestown, PA
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Nice story and great equipment comparison. You both got a nice record of the transit.
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Walt
Obsession 18" f/4.45 #1370 AN/SC
MK67 Deluxe 6" f/12 Mak-Cass, Super Polaris GEM, JMI MicroMax DSC
DIY 60mm f/6 Achromat
Cookbook 245 CCD
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