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Science with Your Telescope

Science with Your Telescope. Brian D. Warner Palmer Divide Observatory http://www.MinorPlanetObserver.com Space Science Institute http://www.SpaceScience.org. Science is Fun!. You can use what you already have Expands your knowledge

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Science with Your Telescope

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  1. Science with Your Telescope Brian D. Warner Palmer Divide Observatoryhttp://www.MinorPlanetObserver.comSpace Science Institutehttp://www.SpaceScience.org

  2. Science is Fun! You can use what you already have Expands your knowledge Professionals depend more, not less, on amateur observations Satisfaction of collaborations and publication

  3. Asteroid Lightcurves at The Palmer Divide Observatory Why Do Asteroid Lightcurves? Correlation between size and period. Slow rotators - what about them is common? Size, shape, pole orientation Size, shape, pole orientation Additional observations in support of radar observations Remove observational bias towards brighter, main belt asteroids, i.e., increase statistical sampling

  4. The Palmer Divide Observatory 14” 20”

  5. The Palmer Divide Observatory 0.35m LX-200GPS North:FLI-1001E - unfiltered South:ST-9E, f/5.0 reducer, VRC 0.5m f/8.1 Ritchey-Chretien FLI-1001E (1Kx1Kx24m) FLI filter wheel - BVRC 80mm/ST-237 guiding

  6. The Palmer Divide Observatory

  7. A Typical Night • Select targets • Open observatories • Write scripts • Start runs • Download images during/after runs • Measure images and analyze data

  8. A Typical Night Works 2 asteroids Periodically syncs Periodically focuses Shuts down camera Homes scope

  9. A Typical Night Measure images with MPO Canopus Plot raw data and look forobvious outliers Do Period Search with MPO Canopus Fourier analysis

  10. Follow up Merge multiple nights Do Period Search on combined data set

  11. It’s Not Always Pretty!

  12. Binary Asteroids Initial Discovery at PDO (Oct. 2004 - present) 3309 Brorefeld 5477 1989 UH25905 Johnson 9069 Hovland 34706 2001 OP83 76818 2000 RG79

  13. Results - Hungarias From Harris Lightcurve List (August 2006) • Total Number: 70 • PDO (primary): 49 (70%) • Spin Rate Distribution: • Two peaks • Less “Spin barrier” effect versus NEO population

  14. Results - Hungarias

  15. Publishing Your Work The Minor Planet Bulletin • Published quarterly by Minor Planets Section of ALPO. • Best place for amateurs to submit. • Juried publication, in many professional libraries around the world (good PR for school programs) • Inexpensive: FREE!http://www.MinorPlanetObserver/mpb/default.htm

  16. Data Mining Asteroid Images Variable Star Search

  17. Data Mining Asteroid Images Variable Star Search

  18. Data Mining Asteroid Images Variable Star Search

  19. Data Mining Asteroid Images

  20. Data Mining Asteroid Images

  21. Binary Stars

  22. Modeling Binary Stars Binary Maker 3http://www.binarymaker.com

  23. Modeling Binary Stars Binary Maker 3 Mass ratio input = 1.500000 mass ratio < 1 = 0.666667 Omega 1 = 4.439516 Omega 2 = 4.439516 Omega inner = 4.526136 Omega outer = 3.948668 Fillout 1 = 0.150000 Fillout 2 = 0.150000 Surface area 1 = 2.298928 Surface area 2 = 1.612613 Volume 1 = 0.321256 Volume 2 = 0.186599 Mean radius 1 = 0.426171 Mean radius 2 = 0.355198 Temperature 1 = 5400.00 Temperature 2 = 6000.00 Luminosity 1 = 0.4662 Luminosity 2 = 0.5338 Inclination = 72.000

  24. Variable Stars (Visual/CCD) American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)http://www.aavso.org

  25. Double Stars Easy to do with CD/DSLR/Webcam equipment Many targets in one night Help is needed on neglected stars

  26. Double Stars Washington Double Star Catalog (WDS) http://ad.usno.navy.mil/wds/wds.html Yahoo News Group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/binary-stars-uncensored/

  27. Double Stars aa / da RA / Dec of the primaryab / db RA / Dec of the secondary

  28. Double Stars

  29. Double Stars Publishing Your Results Journal of Double Star Observations http://www.jdso.org/ The Webb Society Double Star Circulars http://www.webbsociety.freeserve.co.uk/notes/doublest01.html

  30. Science is FUN! Society for Astronomical Sciences http://www.SocAstroSci.org

  31. Acknoweldgements Funding for this research was provided by: NASA grant NNG06GI32G NASA grant NNX06AB30G NSF grant AST-0607505

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