Astronomy Report
01/13/2015
Scott MacPhee
Renee Garifi
Sky Conditions:
Overcast
Wind Conditions:
Calm
Summary:
Weather conditions at MDRS have again prevented observations of planned targets on January 13th, 2015. If observing becomes possible later this evening, 2 star alignment will be completed and observational astronomy targets of choice will be viewed. Further progress will depend on sky conditions.
Exoplanet targets from the KELT (Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope) database for Wednesday Jan. 14th were reviewed. Weather conditions on Wed. Jan. 14th are expected to be clear, thus our first observing run is slated to begin tomorrow.
Objects Viewed:
Planned Observations
Date: Jan 14th 2015
Number of Potential Target(s): 6
Object Designations: KC03C14057, KC04C016088, KC04C018800, KC20C05168, KC08C05899, KC11C020321
Highest Priority Target (Dependent on visibility): KC04C016088
A complete transit of this object is not observable on this date as ingress occurs before twilight. However, this target has the largest transit depth of the potential targets (~20mmag) and has a 6 hour transit time, thus egress should be observable at 23:05pm January 14th. This will ensure sufficient time is available to confirm proper telescope alignment and software sync (with the dome and the telescope), achieve proper focus, find the star field, setup the autoguider and experiment with exposure times.
Problems Encountered:
Initial setup and testing of the observatory systems will be completed, thus sufficient time will be required to ensure proper observatory function, and that the target of interest is being tracked as expected.
Signing off,
Scott and Renee