Research Topics in Infra-Red Astronomy

Page 1 Why Infra-Red Astronomy? - Page 2 Investigating possible projects - Page 3 Variable stars in the field of OO VUL - Page 4 The final project design

Trial runs - hopefully leading to the final design

PART 1 - Fields that are imaged at least once - and hopefully twice - per month

Each zone is imaged for 60 seconds in IR and 120 seconds in V twice a month. 37 zones at 6 minutes per month equals 222 minutes per month + overheads such as slewing, focussing and the rest. Perhaps 5 hours in total.

NAME SCOPE
SAGITTA and VULPECULA 6 zones on the Sagitta/Vulpecula border - IR Sge, LL Sge, LY Sge, OW Sge, OO Vul and M27 - 6 zones in all
LYRA 25 known Mira variable stars in Lyra plus KQ HER - 26 zones in all
AQUILA 5 zones in Aquila - v1568, v1574, v1591, v1621 and v1632 AQL - 5 zones in all

PART 2 - Imaging dark nebula

My standard method is to take a 120 second image in IR and in V and then to generate an animation from the two images: since this makes the images easier to compare and contrast. There are a total of 314 zones in my list - all north of the celestial equator. The top priority are the 79 darkest nebulae with the remainder to be done when convenient. The highest concentration of targets is in the Cygnus area and so are targets for spring 2008.

PART 3 - Imaging Mira type variable stars

STAR V mag I mag V - I Rough Spectral Class
based on V -I
VSX or book value
R UMA at just past min 12.50 6.41 6.09 M8/10 M9e at min
RS MON at max 10.41 6.43 3.98 M5/7 M3e at max
VY HER at max 9.50 6.04 3.46 M5/6 M5e: at max
V VIR near min 14.99 8.99 6.00 M8/10 M6e at min
X LIB at just past min 13.57 9.75 3.82 M5/7 M4e at max

Page 1 Why Infra-Red Astronomy? - Page 2 Investigating possible projects - Page 3 Variable stars in the field of OO VUL - Page 4 The final project design


In collaboration with the Remote Astronomical Society Observatory

Martin Nicholson - Daventry, United Kingdom.

This page was last updated on October 4th 2008.