Crew 205 Astronomy Reports
Contents
Crew 205: International Emerging Space Leaders
Crew 205 Astronomy Report 11 Feb 2019
Crew Astronomer: Ghanim Alotaibi
MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY
Robotic Telescope Requested:MDRS-14
Objects Viewed: SY MON variable star was requested for observation in Skynet in 10 Feb 2019 night at about 9:15 Local Time. 60 seconds exposure time using V filter was requested for the purpose of photometry.
Problems Encountered: The crew was informed that Skynet is not working properly in the past days due to a software glitch. No Data was obtained the night of 10 Feb 2019. However, this morning we were informed Skynet was nominal working correctly. We expect the observation to have been conducted this evening. We will try to download the data later tonight, and continue conducting photometry tomorrow morning.
Crew 205 Astronomy Report 12 Feb 2019
Crew Astronomer: Ghanim Alotaibi
MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY
Robotic Telescope Requested:MDRS-14
Objects Viewed: ASASSN-V J081823.00-111138.9. I called it MDRS Target 1 in Skynet (RA: 08 18 23.00 , DEC: -11 11 38.9). The observations are planned to be 120 s exposure time with the B filter and 60 s with the V filter. 9 exposures were requested for a period of about 3 hours.
A photometry value was calculated for the target SY MON (that was observed in 11 Feb 2019), and the photometry value was found to be 14.147. This value will be submitted to the AAVSO.
Problems Encountered: Nothing to mention
Crew 205 Astronomy Report 13 Feb 2019
Crew Astronomer:Ghanim Alotaibi
MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY
Robotic Telescope Requested: MDRS-14
Objects Viewed: Out of the 18 images requested last night, I found only 12 images were captured. However, all the captured images were found to be bad for photometry. The seeing condition was not good yesterday for astrophotography and it was decided to resubmit the observation session.
Problems Encountered:Bad weather conditions.
Crew 205 Astronomy Report 15 Feb 2019
Crew Astronomer: Ghanim Alotaibi
MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY
Robotic Telescope Requested: No
Objects Viewed: No observational session was requested for tonight. I am waiting for a clear sky for the observations submitted in 13 Feb. We wanted to submit the SY MON photometry measurement to the AAVSO However, some errors were found. The CCD setting was not correct, and there are better options to select comparison stars.
As the new set up was inserted and new comparison stars were selected, the new measured value for the SY MON star was found to be 13.918. However, the magnitude value of the check star was unreasonable and was reported to observatory director.
The crew astronomer used another method to calculate the magnitude value for the target. He measured the instrumental magnitude directly from the software and performed the calculation manually. The magnitude value was found to be 14.118. The value was also reported to observatory director.
Problems Encountered: Nothing to mention
Crew 205 Astronomy Report 17 Feb 2019
Crew Astronomer: Ghanim Alotaibi
MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY
Robotic Telescope Requested: MDRS-14
Objects Viewed: Last night 10 images were captured out of the requested 18 images for MDRS Target 1. The quality of the images is bad and one of the images looks shaky. Crew astronomer suggested to resubmit the observation and Observatory Director recommended the same due to some problems encountered, thus the observation was resubmitted.
New photometry measurement was performed for SY MON target. Based on the previous experience gained, the new measurement was found to be 14.132 with an error of 0.0185. The data point was submitted to the AAVSO website with the star 122 as a check star.
Problems Encountered: Mount Problems which caused shaky images. The moon was also bright, so bad images were captured. Observatory Director solved the problem.
Crew 205 Astronomy Report 18 Feb 2019
Crew Astronomer:Natalia Larrea
MDRS ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY
Robotic Telescope Requested:MDRS-WF
Objects Viewed: No observations for MDRS Target 1 were captured using MDRS-14 last night due to cloudy weather. We are still waiting for the sky to clear to obtain further measurements. This morning we submitted an additional observation request for Orion Nebula using MDRS-WF telescope. Observations were set at 3 sec exposure using RGB and Lum filters. Right Ascension correction for this object was set at -10 arcmin.
Problems Encountered: Bad weather conditions.
