Comments on: New Sky Survey To Catch Exploding Stars In The Act

By: Jon Hanford

Jon Hanford — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 02:41:44 +0000

I found all sorts of great info and links on the current configuration and PTF program at the Samuel Oschin Telescope here: http://www.astro.caltech.edu/palomar/sot.html . It's also interesting to remember this is the 48 inch Schmidt Camera that produced the Northern Hemisphere version of the popular Palomar Observatory Sky Survey I (POSS I) and the Digital POSS II (DPOSS II) that amateurs and pros use every day. History of these surveys and links to them are also available at the above link. Great to see a groundbreaking telescope still producing state-of-the-art science

By: ND

ND — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 18:14:19 +0000

ooh. home made CCD camera. need to check that issue of S&T.

By: Jon Hanford

Jon Hanford — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 18:02:50 +0000

Actually, amateur SN hunters have had to deal with this automated, robotic search method for several years, only with smaller telescopes or telephoto lenses (i.e. KAIT, Tim Puckett's SN program, etc., giving traditional visual SN hunters like Rev. Robert Evans a run for the money). But it seems that amateurs are getting into robotic hunting of SNe (the recent SN 2008ha was discovered through Puckett's program by a 14 year old girl!) and the July 2009 issue of Sky & Telescope describes an Australian amateur's robotic SN search efforts done on the cheap from his own back porch. He's already had solo discoveries of 2 SNe using an off-the-shelf 9.25in Celestron and a home-built CCD camera. I see a trend developing here among advanced amateurs. And that's great

By: ND

ND — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 02:17:48 +0000

bad news for amateur SN hunters. was bound to happen.

By: Jon Hanford

Jon Hanford — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:34:18 +0000

This is awesome that large amounts of imaging data from the 48" Schmidt ( about 100Gb/night) will will be able to be searched and analyized using supercomputers at LBNL in near real time. Objects of interest can be imaged multiple times to construct light curves, or if daylight or moonlight interferes, pass off the positional data to other observatories able to continue obtaining observations. Interesting use of supercomputers, high-speed internet connections and large, state of the art CCD detectors to scour the heavens.

By: star-grazer west coast

star-grazer west coast — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:23:43 +0000

It is interesting they are using DOE MERSC for this interesting survery. Finding a SN every 12 minutes, no doubt there will be some 'exotic' type SN not now known discovered. This will really increase our knowledge of what happens with exploding stars, and if lucky, stars ready to explode and see the results!!!!