Instrumentation and Equipment

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I've been an variable star observer for a number of years but have only ever done visual observing.  I’ve never had that much interest in astrophotography or EAA but as I’ve been reading some accounts on here and in other places of people doing really interesting variable star photometry with the new breed of smart telescopes I’ve decided this this is something I’d really like to get into myself.

I read somewhere that there is a problem with CMOS camera photometry at exposures less than about a second.

I wanted to check if this is true and why please.

Kevin

I'm an AAVSO newcomer and newbie in photometry. I want to buy  36 mm V and B filters for my  optic system (Celestron 11"/STT-8300 camera). I have read CCDPhotmetric guide and I have doubts about the selection: Sloan or Johnson, Chroma or Baader? Could you recommend? Thanks,

Luis

Oviedo, Spain

This is a thread for experienced veterans.

I just found these old cameras forgotten in some drawers when moving an astronomy club to a new address: Celestron PIXCEL 255, SBIG CCDH-1, SBIG ST-7, and StarLight MX7c.

Hello All, 

I'm going to enter into this world, finally after a while. I have to select a camera to start doing my first steps into photometry (I'm reading the AAVSO guides/manuals).

options are:

- KAF 8300 (full well 25Ke, 16 bit, cooled)

- IMX533 (full well 50ke, 14bit, cooled)

- IMX432 (full well 97ke, 12bit, uncooled)

     This paper that appeared on astro-ph recently, contains results assessing red leak in filters while observing red stars:

https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.03227

On the Influence of ''Red Leak''of Light Filters on the Brightness Estimates of Stars of Late Spectral Types Illustrated by the Observations of Rapid Variability of Symbiotic Stars

...looks to be the results of a student project.  It seems to involve a commercial CCD camera, but the source of the filters is not specified in the text.

\Brian

Hi All

I have been able to generate some B,V,R transformation coefficients for the S50.  I outline the steps briefly as follows:

1. Coefficients are based on images of the standard field for NGC 3532.  This is quite a crowded field with a large number of standard stars so I reduced the number to avoid stars close together, etc.

I have just purchased a Player One IMX533 mono camera to replace my CCD and would appreciate a recommendation on optimal mode and gain settings for BVRI photometry.  This is the 'baby' version of the IMX571.

All sensor characteristic charts can be found here:  https://player-one-astronomy.com/product/ares-m-pro-usb3-0-mono-camera-imx533/

Curious if anyone is using an Aluma AC4040 camera?  Have questions. 

Thanks, Mike

For years I have used a fixed-gain CCD camera, first an Sbig ST-10, then QSI 532, both with the wonderful Kodak KAF-3200M chip.  The 532 has died, and finding a QSI 632 on the market, which also has the same chip, I bought it only to discover that it operates with either a high (.9) or Low (2) gain setting instead of the fixed 1.29 of the prior cameras, bringing an unwanted complexity to my program.