tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60889559715314159522024-03-05T12:53:56.266+00:00Ed's Telescope Blog<a href="http://www.telescope.org/blog-posts.php?author=Ed">View on telescope.org</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01089309160559245586noreply@blogger.comBlogger39125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6088955971531415952.post-9580018321087331772016-11-30T14:50:00.001+00:002016-11-30T14:50:13.737+00:00November Progress UpdateAfter last months brief period of observations we are sorry to report that the ART is still unable to perform autonomous observations due to continuing hardware faults.<br>
<a href="http://ed-brt.blogspot.com/2016/11/november-progress-update.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01089309160559245586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6088955971531415952.post-80607068052628293122016-11-01T10:30:00.001+00:002016-11-01T10:30:25.250+00:00PIRATE data contributes to Gaia follow upThis week's <a href="http://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/IoW_20161027">Gaia image of the week</a> is a graph of a microlensing event, which many observatories around the world have been helping to follow up. Included among these is our newly commissioned PIRATE telescope, seen credited at the bottom.<br />
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<a href="http://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/IoW_20161027">http://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/gaia/IoW_20161027</a><br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01089309160559245586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6088955971531415952.post-91915811946275927662016-10-13T15:32:00.000+01:002016-11-01T10:26:36.937+00:00October Progress UpdateRecently, after a successful service trip to Tenerife, some users with outstanding jobs in the ART queue had images returned. Over the nights of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of October approximately 300 images were taken autonomously.<br>
<a href="http://ed-brt.blogspot.com/2016/10/recently-after-successful-service-trip.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01089309160559245586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6088955971531415952.post-25081694826471461782016-09-12T13:33:00.003+01:002016-09-12T15:45:52.864+01:00September Progress UpdateWork continues on trying to re-establish observations with the Autonomous Robotic Telescope (ART). On the night of Thursday 8th September a test run was carried out and a number of jobs were completed with Galaxy Cam. The images returned appeared to be of good quality, however further work is required on the alignment system of the telescope.<br>
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We hope to establish a fuller service soon and a service visit is scheduled for the end of September to aid in this effort.<br>
<a href="http://ed-brt.blogspot.com/2016/09/september-progress-update.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01089309160559245586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6088955971531415952.post-27804340558674921672016-07-28T14:26:00.000+01:002016-09-12T15:45:11.606+01:00August Progress UpdateA team have visited the Teide Observatory to perform maintenance on the Autonomous Robotic Telescope (ART) and oversee the construction of the new facilities that will form the OpenScience Observatories.<br>
<a href="http://ed-brt.blogspot.com/2016/07/progress-update.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01089309160559245586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6088955971531415952.post-44181425534629117712016-06-21T12:00:00.000+01:002016-06-22T11:01:49.951+01:00Welcome back!Welcome back to telescope.org. The website and the telescope have now completed the transfer to the Open University.<br>
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If you are a registered user who agreed to have your account transferred, you should find that your archive is as you left it.<br>
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If you have any problems with the use of the website or you account then please <a href="http://www.telescope.org/contact-us.php">contact the telescope.org team</a>.<br>
<a href="http://ed-brt.blogspot.com/2016/06/welcome-back.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01089309160559245586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6088955971531415952.post-38609845023509904072015-04-09T15:50:00.000+01:002015-04-09T15:50:17.013+01:00Featured Object - The Needle GalaxyGalaxies are often very faint objects. It can be difficult to see the fine detail without very long exposures. Not the case with edge-on galaxies. With the stars of the galaxy in-line, the galaxies appear much brighter (though with less area).<br>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBbKXH2Hd6km-Ju7GezpOnEy-zlAEQ2W1CGl3l1jwyz6KP-SmUlIdI-sWLc2ihAIOUM0wU6sP24kug7hFe-hrIPLVKSAueddNn84ri41Q85vQMT6af9tURElhyphenhyphen_zQU1Q_7FtghIntTu-4/s1600/NGC4565.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBbKXH2Hd6km-Ju7GezpOnEy-zlAEQ2W1CGl3l1jwyz6KP-SmUlIdI-sWLc2ihAIOUM0wU6sP24kug7hFe-hrIPLVKSAueddNn84ri41Q85vQMT6af9tURElhyphenhyphen_zQU1Q_7FtghIntTu-4/s1600/NGC4565.png" height="320" width="320"></a></div>
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<a href="http://ed-brt.blogspot.com/2015/04/featured-object-needle-galaxy.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01089309160559245586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6088955971531415952.post-17300731929331191472015-01-23T17:47:00.000+00:002015-01-23T17:47:07.690+00:00New Request ConstructorThe most important part of interacting with the telescope in Tenerife - the request constructor - has just been upgraded. Over one year in development, this latest iteration should be quicker and easier to use, no matter what you are using the telescope to do.<br>
<a href="http://ed-brt.blogspot.com/2015/01/new-request-constructor.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01089309160559245586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6088955971531415952.post-22163845163329165882015-01-13T11:20:00.000+00:002015-01-13T11:37:04.322+00:00Featured Object - Comet LovejoyComet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy), now around its peak brightness of magnitude 5, can actually be seen with the naked eye. But using Cluster Camera gives a far better view.<br>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9IB-bHL7yy0U77sOLN86u9j55uMPGYt9zLzlbPjzFANjiXbRYIjDw4zg-8i7l9kkf4SuM7d8yBxxs0vjHLGHz7MMP9B4g3z-6th7_ZyVZuij4Z7XGi3xlTYr4jfHuFK25C0Rveyqfcv8/s1600/Comet+Lovejoy+Colour+Crop.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9IB-bHL7yy0U77sOLN86u9j55uMPGYt9zLzlbPjzFANjiXbRYIjDw4zg-8i7l9kkf4SuM7d8yBxxs0vjHLGHz7MMP9B4g3z-6th7_ZyVZuij4Z7XGi3xlTYr4jfHuFK25C0Rveyqfcv8/s1600/Comet+Lovejoy+Colour+Crop.png" height="320" width="320"></a></div>
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<a href="http://ed-brt.blogspot.com/2015/01/featured-object-comet-lovejoy.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01089309160559245586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6088955971531415952.post-75377072636613850342015-01-12T12:41:00.000+00:002015-01-12T14:03:56.319+00:0020 Years of the Bradford Robotic TelescopeNot long ago was the 20th anniversary of the first Bradford Robotic Telescope. Since the 1990s, the University of Bradford has been leading the world in remote astronomy and we're still going strong today. In this post we reveal video clips from 1995 TV, hailing the then new robotic telescope.<br>
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<a href="http://ed-brt.blogspot.com/2015/01/20-years-of-bradford-robotic-telescope.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01089309160559245586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6088955971531415952.post-81418012420690794562014-10-27T16:26:00.004+00:002014-10-27T16:32:55.005+00:00Featured Object - The Flame NebulaThe object we'll be looking at this time is the Flame Nebula. This little know nebula is very easy to observe, in terms of its brightness and its size.<br>
<a href="http://ed-brt.blogspot.com/2014/10/featured-object-flame-nebula.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01089309160559245586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6088955971531415952.post-81442558661349830102014-08-13T22:25:00.004+01:002014-08-15T14:22:20.598+01:00New Image Viewer Now LiveI am excited to present the very latest version of our online FITS editing tools, now live on the site for you to use. While other sites either provide a static jpeg or (sometimes) give you a FITS file, which you need specialist software to open, we are unique in offering a simple-to-use interface for editing your data, right in your web browser. Our newest, third generation FITS viewer is going to push the boundaries of what you thought was possible in a web page, and the first stage of the release is now live.<br>
<a href="http://ed-brt.blogspot.com/2014/08/new-image-viewer-now-live.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01089309160559245586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6088955971531415952.post-37132388922216348272014-08-12T11:08:00.000+01:002014-08-12T21:05:23.501+01:00Object of the Month - Veil NebulaThe Veil Nebula is not an object that has traditionally been popular with the users of the BRT. I can only assume that this is because it's not very well known. With the right settings this object can produce quite nice images.<br>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwKXywsRiguzREnZswok8NhAxwE265iW6bT0GVL_ErnS7a74ZjZpPCjZY-kQiQB6rMfirwCQ0kq7m8MYLVJPYs-rTSicxIc1tNeufMyYfLcZrappyLZq6Y6qkaIfOdLGBbTtEo_WTDtRg/s1600/6992.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwKXywsRiguzREnZswok8NhAxwE265iW6bT0GVL_ErnS7a74ZjZpPCjZY-kQiQB6rMfirwCQ0kq7m8MYLVJPYs-rTSicxIc1tNeufMyYfLcZrappyLZq6Y6qkaIfOdLGBbTtEo_WTDtRg/s1600/6992.png" height="320" width="320"></a></td></tr>
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<a href="http://ed-brt.blogspot.com/2014/08/object-of-month-veil-nebula.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01089309160559245586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6088955971531415952.post-5264537935682272202014-08-05T16:11:00.001+01:002014-08-07T20:01:27.244+01:00Master Dark and Bias FramesIn order to get a good image back from a CCD on the back of a telescope, there are a number of processes you have to put the image through to account for discrepancies and errors. These include applying bias and dark frames as well as flat fielding. We handle these for you automatically, but for those that like to do things by hand we are now producing master dark and bias frames for more advanced users to use.<br>
<a href="http://ed-brt.blogspot.com/2014/08/master-dark-and-bias-frames.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01089309160559245586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6088955971531415952.post-54777863874213652262014-07-08T13:37:00.000+01:002015-01-06T09:59:10.444+00:00A Guide to FiltersThere are a wide range of filters available on our cameras. Different cameras have different filters. These filters have strange names, which may be confusing if you've never seen them before. I dedicate this post to explaining what these filters are and when to use them.<br>
<a href="http://ed-brt.blogspot.com/2014/07/a-guide-to-filters.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01089309160559245586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6088955971531415952.post-72181989882645679242014-06-24T11:20:00.000+01:002014-06-24T11:20:19.277+01:00Object of the Month - The Milky WayOur telescope is pretty uniquely capable of capturing images of the milky way in all its splendour thanks to the wide field cameras you are able to request images from. The only difficulty is working out what to point at, as the milky way takes up quite a lot of the sky. (Or all of it you could argue).<br>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtFPkTFKaNhBl5CQ47uFuYgpnino3A6zRnKrnkXaWn_gkzNfxL2T_Wt4AaH2mI9LwyI7UxNqulrl9Yc7t08nHyjY5lxv7KHWSOs_RgvU_eYt5FAG3iNqgqOvYevjcWsXHW9jWd-0a7oUQ/s1600/Milky+Way.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtFPkTFKaNhBl5CQ47uFuYgpnino3A6zRnKrnkXaWn_gkzNfxL2T_Wt4AaH2mI9LwyI7UxNqulrl9Yc7t08nHyjY5lxv7KHWSOs_RgvU_eYt5FAG3iNqgqOvYevjcWsXHW9jWd-0a7oUQ/s1600/Milky+Way.png" height="320" width="320"></a></div>
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<a href="http://ed-brt.blogspot.com/2014/06/object-of-month-milky-way.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01089309160559245586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6088955971531415952.post-79553482055636859622014-05-20T12:58:00.002+01:002014-05-20T13:03:32.421+01:00Object of the Month - Trifid NebulaThere is a lot of gas and dust in space. Most of it we can't see because both the dust and the background of space are very dark. Generally speaking, there are three different reasons we might get to see this dust. The Trifid Nebula (Messier 20) is a great showcase for this as it demonstrates all three in a single object. This also makes it an interesting object to try and image.<br>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC4-hWeAqyLxx7C23pkFvjkHBCZd2dyYz1_709yhvIJvgi89To1JH_DtE1jdM2pUiD2WMe-NkEOI3yDQvk8s6kTPvBdjrEBWZIQrtPl-civgIp1j98kAtsttJ9Yy4PWYl8oGFZZVM-8vo/s1600/M20.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC4-hWeAqyLxx7C23pkFvjkHBCZd2dyYz1_709yhvIJvgi89To1JH_DtE1jdM2pUiD2WMe-NkEOI3yDQvk8s6kTPvBdjrEBWZIQrtPl-civgIp1j98kAtsttJ9Yy4PWYl8oGFZZVM-8vo/s1600/M20.png" height="280" width="320"></a></div>
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</div><a href="http://ed-brt.blogspot.com/2014/05/object-of-month-trifid-nebula.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01089309160559245586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6088955971531415952.post-60273545423144952732014-04-24T11:54:00.001+01:002014-04-24T16:25:10.850+01:00Fun with Domes (PART 4)The dome pointing algorithm has so far been improved a good amount but there are still some things that can be done; things that require much more than merely tweaking some parameters.<br>
<a href="http://ed-brt.blogspot.com/2014/04/fun-with-domes-part-4.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01089309160559245586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6088955971531415952.post-46518520734696560902014-04-24T11:54:00.000+01:002014-04-24T11:55:42.685+01:00Fun with Domes (PART 3)This is where I start delving deeper into the mathematics behind the dome control algorithms. After all this it was a good week before I stopped having dreams about spherical polar coordinate transforms.<br>
<a href="http://ed-brt.blogspot.com/2014/04/fun-with-domes-part-3.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01089309160559245586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6088955971531415952.post-66999466580096598392014-04-23T11:40:00.000+01:002014-04-24T11:55:18.676+01:00Fun with Domes (PART 2)In my last blog post I talked about how I had started to investigate the positioning of the dome and I had found some areas of the sky where the galaxy camera was being obscured by the top of the dome.<br>
<a href="http://ed-brt.blogspot.com/2014/04/fun-with-domes-part-2.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01089309160559245586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6088955971531415952.post-25110832475539590982014-04-10T12:30:00.000+01:002014-04-24T12:01:29.851+01:00Fun with Domes (PART 1)Over the last week or so I have been doing some investigating into the algorithms that control the positioning of the dome throughout the night. It has been a long journey full of pitfalls and surprises but it might be leading to better dome positioning from now on.<br>
<a href="http://ed-brt.blogspot.com/2014/04/fun-with-domes-part-1.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01089309160559245586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6088955971531415952.post-72761878985520424752014-04-07T16:06:00.000+01:002014-04-07T16:06:15.608+01:00Some thoughts on schedulersOver the years we have had many people present their views on how the telescope's scheduling system isn't working fairly. It's an interesting point for discussion so here I want to share my two cents on scheduling systems and how they work.<br>
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<a href="http://ed-brt.blogspot.com/2014/04/some-thoughts-on-schedulers.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01089309160559245586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6088955971531415952.post-70224957409262802014-03-03T10:08:00.001+00:002014-03-03T10:08:13.056+00:00Object of the Month: NGC 2903There are a few galaxies around the skies of the Northern Hemisphere which Charles Messier somehow missed when he was compiling his famous Messier Catalogue. One of these is the galaxy NGC 2903. Discovered by William Herschel 15 years later, this bright spiral galaxy has an unusual textured core.<br>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTAldObu8AeKAfp8CaZyBOWFuhFQIuZK_gA7ZXOHp-3lamnWJLM34QAe7svkNBXhMVB3Tr_VZu1Jyh4uvUjCY3uLpzz9sb_hce5Dbvo6WeRSm1o-q7K0acuecx9cbkKPUE4JKVlnHvUEQ/s1600/Clear_crop.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTAldObu8AeKAfp8CaZyBOWFuhFQIuZK_gA7ZXOHp-3lamnWJLM34QAe7svkNBXhMVB3Tr_VZu1Jyh4uvUjCY3uLpzz9sb_hce5Dbvo6WeRSm1o-q7K0acuecx9cbkKPUE4JKVlnHvUEQ/s1600/Clear_crop.png" height="320" width="320"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Clear image of the galaxy (cropped)</td></tr>
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<a href="http://ed-brt.blogspot.com/2014/03/object-of-month-ngc-2903.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01089309160559245586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6088955971531415952.post-82487470671846147772014-02-14T10:38:00.000+00:002014-02-14T12:17:28.680+00:00Happy Valentines DayWhat better way to show your affection to your nearest and dearest than with a personal image of IC1805?<br>
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<a href="http://ed-brt.blogspot.com/2014/02/happy-valentines-day.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01089309160559245586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6088955971531415952.post-39220966646029482592014-02-05T10:24:00.000+00:002014-02-05T11:33:02.139+00:00A survey of GalaxiesGalaxies can be very beautiful objects to image. They are all unique, can often have very intricate spirals, and don't take much work to get a good picture of. The tricky part is knowing which galaxies to take images of, as there certainly are a lot! Over the past 18 months I have been taking images of some promising galaxies and here I present the results of that endeavour.<br>
<a href="http://ed-brt.blogspot.com/2014/02/a-survey-of-galaxies.html#more">Read more »</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01089309160559245586noreply@blogger.com