Photometric data are given in the standard Johnson UBV, Kron-Cousins RI, 2MASS JHK, and Spitzer & bandpasses.įor colleagues who could not personally travel to the host University for our Conference, a few words about Astronomy at the University of the Witwatersrand may be in order. Archival photometry contributed approximately 31,000 observations. We provide a full description of the TMMT hardware, software, and data reduction pipeline. 60,000 observations were acquired using the new robotic Three-hundred MilliMeter Telescope (TMMT), which was first deployed at the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, CA, and is now permanently installed and operating at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. Data smoothing via the GLOESS technique is described and applied to generate high-fidelity light curves, from which mean magnitudes, amplitudes, rise-times, and times of minimum and maximum light are derived. Individual studies, spanning a time baseline of up to 30 years, are self-consistently phased to produce light curves in 10 photometric bands covering the wavelength range from 0.4 to 4.5 microns. We present a multi-wavelength compilation of new and previously-published photometry for 55 Galactic field RR Lyrae variables. ![]() We hope this work may act as a blue-print or encourage and aid other small to medium sized higher-education institutions and astrophysics groups to also develop their own undergraduate observatory. planetary transits, variable stars or high-resolution planetary imaging. We report on projects ranging from early-years projects based on observational planning, data analysis and some restricted actual observations, to more open-ended final-year projects to observe, e.g. We detail the iterative process of planning, funding, results and student-projects, that we followed over 4 years from a Raspberry Pi camera and home-owned telescope, to a permanent roll-top observatory with two fully automated telescope systems capable of undergraduate use and astronomical science. ![]() With the advent of moderate cost, high-quality ‘back-garden’ astronomy, and standard computers powerful enough to produce original research, we show it is possible to build a small observatory capable of actual astrophysical research for a modest budget ≈ £ 30 000. Yet, there is a disconnect between a typical undergraduate lecture and, for example, where a planet may be in the sky and how to observe it. Astronomy is one of the few sciences where the data (star-light) can be seen by all.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |