Re: "Getting Ready To Get Ready"

[Tom Droege <tdroege@veriomail.com>]

Glenn and all,

Glad to see Glenn is waking up and thinking about using the Mark IV.  It 
helps me to keep going when there is interest.

One of the things I am interested in getting is a pipeline to run my 
data.  I now have a stack of disks with WCS coordinates on them just right 
for Glenn to tune his pipeline.  Just ask Glenn, and I will send as many as 
you can stand.

Glenn, I have been doing just what you want.  Sitting at 0 Declination and 
just taking fields.  I get each star 5-6 times a night.  I think I have 5 
WCS nights so far, so about 25 measurements of many stars.

I think there should be no practical difference in the data taken with the 
QB program now and the future/present real time system.  Possibly the real 
time system will have a better time measurement.  The shutter timing now 
looks pretty good.

I am hoping that when Mike and Glenn come here to pick up their systems 
that they will also come with some software and educate me on how to use 
it.  I have plenty of computers just waiting to try out software.  I also 
have a stack of data with WCS on it.   I would like to try to reduce some 
data to star lists while they are here to help me learn what to do.  Often 
it is just doing it once that is needed.

I too am interested in the planet hunting.  There is also something else 
that might be fun, with a dual system in Chicago and systems in Cincinnati 
or Dayton there is a pretty good base line.  If I have done the math 
correctly, then we should be able to measure distance beyond orbit of the 
moon.  There are supposed to be frequent small objects in this space.  It 
would be fun to have two Mark IVs look at the same spot in the sky at the 
same time.  Since each one is a pair, there would be good funny object 
detection from a single site.  With two sites, and the right object not 
moving too fast, one gets a trajectory.  Note that one has plenty of 
satellites for calibration.  Probably a long shot, but it could be done at 
the same time as other projects.  There is another reason for doing this, 
even more far out.

Tom Droege



At 05:14 PM 4/24/01 -0400, you wrote:
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