Re: [APML] Science in Astrophotos

["Tom & Lou Krajci" <krajcit@3lefties.com>]

From: "Chuck Vaughn" <aa6g@aa6g.org>

>...Why continue to take photometric data? In the hope of discovering
> a previously unknown variable?

As Arne Henden, professional photometrist, told me:  Even as bright as 10th
magnitude the sky has not been fully surveyed to identify all possible
variable star candidates.  (It's one thing to survey the sky 100%
*once*...but you gotta do it multiple times to search for variables.)  This
means that from a science standpoint, there are plenty of 'low hanging
fruit' surprises still out there for amateurs to help with.

Tom Krajci

PS.  From my time-series photometry of one star, FS Aur, I have about 3000
images on hard disk.  Arne Henden says I need to analyze/data mine *all*
those images to evaluate *all other stars* in the images for variable
candidate status.  Roughly 1% of any star field is easily identified as
variable, and several times that amount are identifiable as variable with
more sensitive/careful analysis.  The problem?  My software does a great job
analyzing one star in a series of images.  Now I need to find (or make!?)
software that will analyze all stars in all images and automatically look
for variable candidates.  ...at least I know I'll not die bored!  ;-)


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