Starship Asterisk*

There are several "anti-dewing" systems that have a "flexible heating element (usually a tape)" that might be the simplist off-the-shelf method for heating the lens to avoid dew. One is made by BC&F Engineering and their web page is here: http://www.hfo.org.uk/Anti%20Dew/anti...

Mark Waterson emailed me the following orientation information for the HL CONCAM3. I record it here in case this information would be useful to anyone. I myself used it to generate the Rise and Set time data table for HL: The most recent survey data we have (actually for Lure, which is about 20meter...

I have been convinced for some time now that NSL data can tell us things about clouds and the atmosphere that are not known, even beyond our opacity maps. Just looking at the unusual and complex motions of thin clouds during a night seems to give an unprecedented window into short time-scale night-t...

Tilvi, Yes, different pixels have different sensitivities. One way to discern this is to look at NSL frames of fog or uniform clouds. Then one knows that all the pixels in an area are uniformly illuminated, so that any differences between pixels above random counting errors can be attributed to diff...

There is sometimes a lot of dust from the African Sahara desert that blows over the Canary Islands. A really cool web page is here and shows this image: http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/images/image09012004_md.jpg That image is from the NASA MODIS satellite taken August 25. I wonder if the dust af...

Noah, I split your post into its own thread. Undergraduate student Vic Muzzin has looked into this a bit, and graduate student Tilvi will likely make atmospheric extinction a chapter in his thesis on stellar variability with CONCAMs. Lior's WOLF program now maps the amount of extinction above 20 deg...

Reruns almost always happen on weekends. Almost all weekend APODs are now "updated" reruns. It has been this way now for years. - RJN

OK I have been studying Beta UMi a bit more and now am NOT convinced that NSL data shows it to be variable. The data shows Beta UMi dropping off toward morning on several successive CI nights. It shows the same behavior every night! Since the star can't know to do the same thing at the same time eve...

Or maybe a rare CI morning airplane? http://nightskylive.net/ci/ci040718/ci040718ut050730a.jpg The abrupt ending near the center indicates that the streak was cut off by the end of the exposure time. That, in turn, indicates that this was not a meteor but a much slower (angularly) moving object. - RJN

I decided to "try out a star" again recently to see if it was variable and to test NSL data's ability to find and track variability. I decided on beta Ursae Minoris (beta Umi) because it was near the top of the CI photometry files. So now I think beta UMi might be quite variable -- at the ...

Thanks Joan. I just de-linked it. My fault.
I should have reader deeper into that link.
- RJN

The FedEx tracker indicates that the new CONCAM computer arrived in Kula, Hawaii at 3:10 pm local time and was signed for by "A.HASEGAWA".

- RJN

The reason that Eta Ursa Majoris appears to change its brightness is surely not related to the star itself. Nearby stars show the same dimming, leading one to beleive that although the frame appears clear, some sort of haze layer has set in. Alternatively, the CCD did something strange and unexpecte...

The computer company, CyberResearch, rushed us a new computer. We received it, loaded it with linux and our control software, and sent it off to HL by FedEx today. It should arrive in Hawaii sometime tomorrow (Thursday, 2004 August 26).

- RJN

Tilvi and I (and others) have been investigating the best and simplist way to do photometry with NSL data. We have now settled on a method similar to how photometry is done with a normal telescope: relative measurements. Here is an algorithm: Pick the star you want to study. Pick a comparison star. ...

Thanks, David. Fixed it. - RJN

Lior's WOLF program that does the automated photometry on NSL FITS images is really fantantic and a tremendous achievement. Still, however, it sometimes does things that I do not understand. Here is one example: Sometimes the (C25-B) number (for example), is higher than the (C16-B) number. This happ...

Actually, APOD has been slashdotted before without a large effect on requested bandwidth. - RJN

The HL group reported by email that the HL computer has a power supply problem. Now we have another computer here but it hadn't been tested or had linux loaded. So Dave Torrey (TJ) just tried to load linux and failed -- likely (again) due to a bad power supply. Oy. So I just called CyberResearch, th...

Hi Noah, Congratulations on the funding! I would suggest the term CONCAM4 (or something similar) instead of Super-CONCAM to better give the idea that your instrument would be the next in a continuing series of improving fisheye CCD sky monitors. Next, I wonder why you are so interested in using filt...

Thanks, MG & Dan. Yes. Also, our policy on re-runs (re: "best ofs") is discussed in the APOD FAQ here: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap_faq.html To quote from that FAQ: Q4: Have some APOD pictures been run more than once? A4: Yes. Many of our readers have been with us less than a ye...

Thanks, Meal. We'll consider it.
- RJN

Sometimes CONCAM images show dew or water on them. Here is a recent image from MK: http://nightskylive.net/mk/mk040819/mk040819ut135549p.jpg Several of us (including Noah Brosch at WO, Andre Phillips at SD, John Oliver at RH, and Dave Cook here at MTU) have been thinking of ways to minimize this. As...

A power outage at Michigan Tech caused the nightskylive web site and the Asterisk* bulletin board to go down. The remote stations were not affected but their images could not be uploaded or displayed at nightskylive.net until power returned, the home concam.net computer rebooted, and the programs re...

Please do not attempt to respond to this thread to discuss the challenge image send to APOD by MIT Physics Professor Walter Lewin.

CHALLENGE AT APOD
OFFICIAL LEWIN'S EXPLANATION