Wiley catches outburst of V1060 Cyg. Inspired by Bill Dillon's work on dwarf novae, Ed began a program of imaging these cataclysmic variables in Cygnus. Just at the beginning of the observing program, V1060 Cyg went into outburst and as of 3 September 2007 seems to be decreasing magnitude and returning to its resting state.
ACP Planner Guide 2.2 is posted. This document descrips how to use ACP Planner in the manual mode to quickly and conveniently prepare plans (scripts) for multiple objects. The GRAS scopes are being moved to ACP, which provides a number of increases in functionality not provided by Browser Astronomy.
Dillon catches outburst of Tu Ind. Using GRAS006 in Australia, Bill Dillon was the only observer to catch the 4 July 2007 outburst of Tu Ind, a "dwarf nova" of the U Geminorum class of nova-like variables. He began his sequence on s July 2 UT, and ended on July 8 UT (only July 3 UT is missing). The star was in outburst on the 4th, then gradually faded. The image were cropped, so the square is about 8 arcminutes or so on a side (north at the top, west on the right). The star varies from about 14th to 17th magnitude. See the report and an animation of the outburst on the Variable Star page.
Geir Klingenberg has sent a new version of his exoplanet GJ436b transit report that is now posted on the Exoplanet page. His experiences have lead me to call for more frequent flats and flat darks. I expect to post new Flats, flat-darks, darks and bais frames by 30 June for GRAS001. Hopefully, this will result in better calibration and less variation. I hope to up-date claibration frames ofr GRAS001 at regular intervals. -Ed Wiley
Bill Dillon took up the challange of Joshua Emery's call for asteroid light curves. He is still reducing the data.
Asteroid Hunters Alert. Joshua Emery of NASA Ames Research Center needs lightcurves on Jupiter Trojans. See link at the CALL site for details. This would be a great opportunity for our asteroid hunters to help our a professional.
June 5 MPC Report. H06 has discovered 32 numbered objects. 5 of the numbered objects have been named. 35 of the discoveries are identified with numbered minor planets. 152 of the discoveries are involved in multiple-apparition orbits. 126 of the discoveries are principal designations. 38 of the one-opposition objects have >= 30-day arc orbits. 22 of the one-opposition objects have < 30-day arc orbits. 2 of the one-opposition objects have no orbit.
Geir Klingenberg, RAS Observatory, measured a transit of the known Neptune-sozed planet orbiting the nearby star GJ436 . Every 2.64 day it passes in front of its host star as seen form earth, dimming the light by a small amount. Transiting exoplanets like this is of great interest since they provide more information about the planet than non-transiting ones. Read his report in PDF format.
Out intrepid Italian comet hunters are making so many interesting observations that it seemed time to adda comet page. The news about the recent comet confirmation by Rolando and colleagues as well as a picture are on this page.
Ed is taking dark and bias farmes and posting them on the server for use by our observers. He would be interested to know if these are of use to the variable observers. If so, the practice will continue: Standardized 120 and 180 second exposures for G1,2 and 4 with 10 bias frames per scope.
New data for photometry is found on the photometry page. This includes information on the UBVRI filters and the May CCD camera tests (which came out excellent).
From the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory: E. Guido and G. Sostero, Castellammare di Stabia, Italy, report that their remote CCD observations with a 0.15-m f/6 reflector at the Rent-a-Scope Observatory at Biggera Waters, Queensland, show the Mt. Lemmon discovery 2006 WD4 (cf. MPEC 2006-W61, MPC 189005; discovery observation below) to be a comet.
Congratulations to Ernesto and Giovanni! Read the full report in PDF.
Arnie is working on ACP for several of the scopes. The first implementation will by GRAS001, the 30cm Mayhill deep imaging system. We suggest downloading ACP Planner and becoming familiar with the way to prepare scripts for ACP. Then, we suggest looking at the videos available at the DC-3 Dreams site. Finally, you can get "hands-on" virtual experience at the Red Mountain Simulated Observatory. You will have to register. Implementation of ACP is still in the formative stages, but even now there are some significant advantages. For example, dark and bias frames can now be taken on a nightly basis and placed directly into your ftp folder.
May 1 MPC Report. H06 has discovered 31 numbered objects. 5 of the numbered objects have been named 34 of the discoveries are identified with numbered minor planets. 151 of the discoveries are involved in multiple-apparition orbits. 126 of the discoveries are principal designations. 38 of the one-opposition objects have >= 30-day arc orbits. 21 of the one-opposition objects have < 30-day arc orbits. 2 of the one-opposition objects have no orbit
24 April 2007. Using the GRAS004 Epsilon, Robert's favorite instrunment, Robert was able to image and mesaure 2007 HB15, a virtual impactor. Such data are especially valuable to the Minor Planet Center as virtual impactors are asteroids whose orbits belong to the region of uncertainty that has a chance to hit Earth. Robert has furnished a gif animation. That and the report can be found on the Asteroid page.
Discovered 2005 Mar. 08 by A. Lowe at RAS Observatory, Mayhill. Robert Hutsebaut (b. 1941) is a Belgian amateur astronomer with a particular interest in minor planets. He has used the remote facilities at RAS Observatory, Mayhill, to confirm many Near-Earth objects, in addition to discovering a number of main-belt minor planets.
Discovered 2005 July 03 by A. Lowe at RAS Observatory, Mayhill. Ernesto Guido (b. 1977) is an Italian amateur astronomer whose main interests lie in the astrometry and physical properties of comets. Using the remote facilities at RAS Observatory, Mayhill, he has also discovered a number of main-belt minor planets.
In 2006, Andrew Lowe honored H06 with newly discovered asteroid (117430) Achosyx = 2005 AQ26
HO6 contributions to the Minor Planet Center for December 2006, January 2007 and February 2007 are available in PDF for downloading.