"Getting Ready To Get Ready"

["Glenn Gombert" <glenngombert@hotmail.com>]

Hello Tom & All,

   Now that spring is here (and work has quieted down a bit) I am really 
getting excited about getting a Mark IV installed and up and running here in 
Dayton collecting data again !!  It looks like Tom might have MICHEL and 
GLENN ready for a trip to Ohio about the first week in July (that’s based on 
where things are now)..I guess Tom will fill in the details as he getting 
both systems ready to make a trip east.

I was reviewing some of the e-mail from last fall to now and was trying to 
come up with a ‘game plan’ for the Mark IV when it finally getting installed 
here in Dayton. The following list is what I had in mind …after reviewing 
the comments that Arne, Doug and Michael have made over the last six months 
or so.

1). Get GLENN installed and running here in Dayton, I have an enclosure that 
has been used for the Mark III Camera here but is probably too small and 
will have to replaced to house GLENN when it gets here. It will take some 
time (it always does) to get GLENN installed, the control software installed 
and data reduction pipeline flowing. (This will take several months at least 
but I hope some useful data can be taken during this period of time as 
well).

	Question for Chris..Will the Linux Mark IV control program be operational 
by then??..Say mid-summer or should I plan on using Tom’s Quick Basic 
program for a while to collect data ?? It would be helpful if you could look 
into your ‘crystal ball’ and see what you think might be best to use for 
getting the camera here in Dayton up and running with.

2). The data reduction pipeline will be worked on along with the data 
collection from the Mark IV when it gets here. Some of the first data 
probably will not be that good..it will get better as the operation and 
techniques improve here..but I am sure it will take several months of hard 
work to get everything somewhat ‘automated’ and flowing…the Mark IV is much 
more complex than the Mark III and the data issues are also more complex too 
than those associated with the Mark III.

	I intend to try both Arne’s IRAF scripts as well as Michael’s data 
reduction pipeline and see which is better suited for use here. I can have 
the same computer running both suites of reduction software and see which is 
easier to automate here in Dayton.

3). I would like to pick out some different fields to look at over and over 
again during the later summer to early fall period of time. It will probably 
be easier to leave the Mark IV camera fixed in Declination and just collect 
data looking at the same fields a number of times each clear night. This is 
something that the Mark III just was not well suited for, basically getting 
one ‘V” band and two ‘I” band measurements per night at most. This would 
allow getting some interesting light-curves (and finding some new short 
period variables as well) over the course of the later summer and fall here 
in Dayton.

  This will also serve as a way to ‘calibrate and tweak’ the data reduction 
pipeline as well as to gather some useful data that could be used as a start 
on the Mark IV dB (what ever that turns out to be).

4). The other thing that I have been giving some serious thought to is give 
Mike G’s ‘Planet Hunting’ proposal a try and see what we can come up with. 
there are several other amateurs here in town with automated LX-200’s that 
could be called on to make follow-up measurements on suspected candidates..

	All-and-all it looks like a very exciting summer and fall. (as long as we 
can keep Tom chained to the work bench checking out Mark IV systems (he he).

Glenn G.

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