RE: fun with coadding images on Disk Set 19

["Gutzwiller, Michael" <mgutzwiller@lanvision.com>]

Actually I'm working on realtime control software now.  I've created some of
the basics in a manner similar to Michael's TAIT.  Instead of being command
line driven however, it will be Windows specific.  The system can be driven
by either a standard Windows application or through Windows scripting like
ActiveX controls.  This means the telescope can be driven by Visual Basic,
VBScript, or even in an Excel spreadsheet either on the local machine or
remotely.  The current code can already point the Mark IV to a specific RA
and Declination (or tell you if it's not within range) though much testing
still needs to be done.

I also started work on a Mark IV analysis pipeline starting with the Mark
III software as a baseline.  I used it to analyze disk set 18 and will soon
use it to analyze disk set 19 though my emphasis right now is on the control
software.

As Arne mentioned my specific interest is planetary transits.  I wasn't
quite ready for the last set of HD209458 transits but should be ready for
the next set.  Not that I hope to better the current data but to use
HD209458 as a test case for quantifying the photometric properties of the
Mark IV system.

Mike G.


-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Droege [mailto:tdroege@veriomail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2001 3:25 PM
To: aah@nofs.navy.mil; tass@listserv.wwa.com
Subject: Re: fun with coadding images on Disk Set 19


Arne writes,

>   Targeted observations are another possibility.  Here you want
>specific coverage of a single star; for example, a known eclipsing
>binary that is going to have an eclipse during the interval it
>could be observed by your site.  You then get the binary light
>curve, plus you can examine the other 2999 objects in your field
>for variability -- two birds with one stone.  Mike was planning

To do targeted observations, I need something better than my patched 
together QBasic software.  I will probably never straighten it out to point 
that I can reliably point to some region of the sky.  This to motivate 
those of you working on the real time code.  I also will probably never get 
around to getting the time right.  There seems to be just too much to do 
for my low energy level.

We are now getting down to the real problem of tass.  Building telescopes 
and taking data is not the problem.  ROTSE and the like have lots of 
data.  Getting a motivated data analysis group going and grinding through 
the data year after year is the problem.  When I write to Bohden Paczynski 
I find that he is really frustrated that the data that has been taken has 
not been analyzed.  ROTSE cannot get funding to do this (at my last 
information) if they could get people who want to do it.  It seems to me 
that there are too many competing projects that are glitsier for it to be 
done professionally.  I am ready to grind away for the next ten years (if I 
can last that long).  There is also the simultaneous filters, a long shot 
for interesting  results.

Tom Droege


>Tom,
>   Certainly doing a time series on a single field for as long
>as you can, then doing the same thing on the next field, etc.
>for the rest of the night is a reasonable approach.  TASS is
>currently competing with the likes of ROTSE; wide field and
>3-4" apertures.  There are a few other systems out there like
>SuperLOTIS, ASAS, STARE, etc. all doing wide-field surveys.
>So you have to look at what is unique about the Mark IV and
>make the uniqueness work for you.
>   In my mind (and I've told Tom this before), the unique aspects