Congratualtion to Dave McDonald

Congrats Dave,

I just saw the piece in A&S and the photo. It was a good clear write up.

I hope it encourages other astronomers here on the island to obtain IAU observatory codes. There are quite a few on the IFAS site whom have instruments that could do it. I think it is worth doing, it certainly is a test for your telescope performance in tracking and imaging. It refines any errors in tracking which then have bearing on the magnitude threshold that you could achieve.

Also thanks for encouraging me 2/3 weeks ago at the COSMOS 2006 to give it a try. I never thought of doing something about this until you sparked us all.

BTW, Are you doing asteroid photometry now with Canopus?

Eamonn A

Thanks Eamonn - that was pretty much the idea of the article. A few folks here showed an interest in the obs code so I figured an article may very well encourage them and show how it wasn;t terribly difficult. The one published in A&S is really just a snippet. But Arcturus has the full article. Of course, if people need hands on help I'm more than willing to assist.

And I've no doubt that there's at least 5 or 10 people here that have the equipment to do this and get a code.

I received my copy of Canopus/PhotoRed last week. I also got Brian';s photometry book 2nd ed which is very good at first glance. In order to get into the photometry I really need the equipment upgrades I'm planning - hopefully by the end of the summer. They include the imager and the BVRI filters. Hopefully I can extend to a 16" scope at roughly the same time - but we'll see. I can cut my teeth on the 8" though if I need to wait a while longer.

With what I have though, I'd be struggling to get the mag accuracies required. But I may well start a few 'dry' runs, at least using canopus for astrometry and possible even photometry (clear). If I get the hang of the software and some of the techniques in preparation for the new kit, that'd be a good start.

All I need is some clear weather - I think I've had a 'dry' spell of over 15 days - the weather really is being unkind on the East coast

Good luck with having a go at getting a code - though I;'d say it'll be a breeze for you!

Thanks again

Dave

Dave congrats on the A&S write up. Hopefully it will demonstrate to the readers that there are serious astronomers doing serious research grade work in this country.