117-AstronomyReport

Astronomy Report

01/17/2015

Scott MacPhee

Renee Garifi

Sky Conditions:

Clear

Wind Conditions:

Slight

Observation Start Time:

18:00

Observation End Time:

00:00

Summary:

Yesterday's observations of KC03C03248 were met with mixed results, as

the dome ran out of power while tracking with the telescope. Prior to

that, the autoguider was functioning well and the telescope remained on

target with very little drift in images. Images obtained during the

previous 2 evenings have been reduced to account for noise introduced in

bias, dark, and flat frames.

For Jan 15th Approximately 40 exposures were collected, however the 70

second exposures were insufficient to collect useful data on the target.

Baseline analysis of potential comparison stars may be possible.

On Jan 16th Approximately 150 exposures were taken, however only 50

images with 90 second exposure time are usable for analysis, as the dome

did not rotate with the telescope.

As there are no transit candidates in the KELT database for this

evening, today's Astronomy objectives involve performing photometric

analysis on the data collected over the previous two nights and taking

some astrophotos in the observatory later on. This will more readily

allow us to process and graph transit light curves when one is observed

in full.

Objects Viewed:

Lovejoy Comet should still be visible this evening. Imaging will be lead

by Renee.

Problems Encountered:

Dome power loss. Midday test confirmed solar panels are recharging the

dome.

Memory used by AstroImageJ (640MB) was insufficient to reduce images,

thus was increased to 1000 MB. Software functioning as expected.

Starry Skies,

Renee & Scott