Weather
Well, after yesterday’s 7+ inches of rain …. Tonight is fairly clear (still slowly improving from the smoke haze). I could actually see second and third magnitude stars even after moonrise. Good seeing – around 1.8 arcsec. Very little wind, low tonight expected around 60F.
Targets
- Rig 1: More data for the BRIGHT campaign on P Cyg and Deneb. What I’m doing each night is to get one time through the requested sequence, then I take two more sets of P Cyg spectra at H-alpha – separated an hour from one-another. Then the final set of spectra are of Deneb dialed in for the Si lines. I’m getting pretty far behind on reducing the spectral data ….
- Rig 2: ASASSN 13ae – or J174033.4+414756. Joe Patterson requested data on this object which just went into outburst a few days ago. It’s pretty bright, shot a sequence of 30-sec images, until the maple tree got in the way. That was at about 1:15am.
Last night using the CGE?
The pier adapter plate should arrive tomorrow sometime – if it is clear tomorrow night I’ll stick with the CGE one more night, otherwise the new AP1200 is going to be moved into the north dome.
PhotProc_X
I finally published the paper about PhotProc_X – the name I’m currently using for the variance-weighted optimal extraction photometry program. At one point yesterday I pulled the article as MaxIm DL’s photometry task kicked it’s tail reducing some of the data from the past week or so. Again, it appears that PPX is very sensitive to changing PSF shapes. It turned out the biggest difference occurred at meridian flip – similar to one of the cases mentioned in the article. Overall scatter is less with PPX, but especially at meridian flip the PPX data has a much larger “jump” in the differential magnitude curve for a pair of “standard” stars. I’m really hoping the new mount will help, as I won’t have to do a meridian flip for at least three hours after meridian passage, which usually puts objects into the tree anyway. I really need to figure a way to flatten the field better. Or get a new telescope for photometric imaging. I may see if I can get someone who owns one of the new AT Ritchey-Chretien ‘scopes to take a few pictures for me – I’ll measure them and see if they’re an improvement over the C14. I’m guessing they are – but I’m also guessing they’ll still present problems. The new AT 20-inch RC sure is a tempting target!
Out at 2:00am – my knee is killing me from a long day of work and play. Time for ice and some rest.
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