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(meteorobs) Query: CCD imaging the Leonids?




A fellow member of one of my local astronomy clubs is a professional
astronomer. She has access to one of the new CCD video/cameras, on a
guiding mount. She asked me for advice on how best to use the camera
on Leonid max night (she can do only one night).

Although I explained it was not my area of expertise, I tried my best
to give her some guidance (she's away on vacation from now till then,
so I had no time to get back to her). Here's what I advised her to do.
I thought I'd pass this by the REAL experts for correction:

1) If there are no major rate spikes going on, take the longest exposure
   possible (practically no more than 2-3 minutes due to dark current),
   once every 45 minutes. In the meantime and throughout, hold a visual
   watch, noting exact times of any bright meteors that may be on CCD.

2) IF there's an outburst going on, begin doing integrations of exactly
   1 minute, continuously throughout the duration of the outburst. If it
   is possible, also do a visual watch at the same time.


The only thing I MIGHT have added thinking about it now would be:

3) IF there is a true STORM occuring, put the camera in 0.5-second-
   integration "video mode" and go till you run out of disk space!


Well, does any of this make sense? The issues to balance of course are
the usefulness of data that can be derived from CCD versus CCD video,
and the time spent fiddling with gizmos during an extraordinary night!

Thanks for any info - I can pass it along to her via email hopefully.

Lew


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