I've succeeded in getting our class in as one of the chosen few this year to be part of the IASC project to search for new asteroids and comets! The IASC is a collaboration of schools whose mission is to use digital images from observatory telescopes and allow students to make new discoveries of asteroids and comets. If you succeed in finding a new object, we will participate in its naming. The starting date for Cabrillo's participation is Aug 25. Prior to that, we need to be learning to use Astrometrica - a free-ware program which measures the positions of objects on digital images in astronomical coordinates (Right Ascension and Declination) by using reference stars on those images. You'll be looking at 3 images of the same field and using Astrometrica to find moving objects (stars don't move!) and then identifying them as previously known, or as new discoveries.
Astrometrica has been installed on the lab room 705 computers.
To test your ability to make out a report on a moving object, the IASC has sent me an Excel spreadsheet which does some basic checking of the reasonableness of your candidate moving object. When you cut/paste your 3 data lines into this spreadsheet, the spreadsheet will identify any of the problems with your candidate (e.g. the velocity isn't constant, isn't linear, the magnitudes change too much). You must remove any candidate asteroids which do NOT pass these tests! The Excel ReportTester.xls spreadsheet is here for you to download for your own computer, although I've not had good success with it and I don't require you to use it therefore. Below I've copy/pasted instructions from Dr. Patrick Miller, who leads the IASC... They may be a little too streamlined for you to understand as is and some parts (e.g. the reportTester parts, and references to sending your reports to him) are not that useful for us, so I've made my own, more complete instruction pages.
Using Astrometrica Daily to Search/Discover Asteroids
Here's Dr. Miller's instructions (but use mine above!)
Greetings from the International Astronomical Search Collaboration
This is a friendly reminder that the next International Asteroid Search Campaign
begins soon. You should have loaded Astrometrica onto your school computers
and be training yourself to use the program. The keys to your students' success
at discovering and measuring asteroids are fairly simple. You need to
be able to:
* Understand and use Astrometrica
* Distinguish between true and false signatures (what is really a moving object
and what is not)
* Prepare clean and accurate MPC reports
The software is available at the IASC home site http://iasc.hsutx.edu/.
Go to the Astrometrica folder where you'll find the software and configuration
files (one for the 24" telescope and the other for the 32"), installation
guide, instructions for finding asteroids, instructions for determining true
and false signatures, and practice image sets.
Only candidate objects which pass the Excel ReportTester tests can be
reported to the Minor Planet Center! The tests focus on two considerations:
The first is that the three data lines truly represent a moving object (i.e.,
it is a true signature and not a false one... not everything that appears to
move across the image sets is real or is an asteroid). The second is that the
measurements of a moving object are of sufficient quality to be of use to the
Minor Planet Center. The MPC Report Tester looks at this second consideration.
Download the spreadsheet and then simply cut and paste the three data lines
for an object into the spreadsheet.
The tester looks to see if the object is moving along a straight line at a constant
speed and a constant brightness. It also checks to be sure the three data lines
for each object are in order (by time) or if any of the three lines are duplicates.
You'll need to make sure that your students haven't reported the same object
twice, as this sometimes happens.
Should you or your students have questions, there are two IASC volunteers anxious
and ready to provide assistance, Ginger Anderson and Michael Kran. Ginger is
available at ginger.anderson@netxv.net and Michael at michael.kran@kran.com.
Ginger is a high school science teacher from May, TX. Michael is from California
and the Assistant Director of IASC.
When your students activate the MPC overlay to begin a manual search, red boxes
will appear at those locations where Astrometrica thinks there should be asteroids
but your students have not seen them. Sometimes these boxes are empty (i.e.,
the object your looking for is in the background and not visible). Your students
must not click on these boxes unless they clearly see a moving object inside.
Never, never click on something unless you are absolutely sure that you see
something moving and it's a true signature. Sometimes these boxes are
empty but there is clearly a moving object a short distance away and moving
parallel to the box. Do not click on the box. Only click on the actual object
that you see.
False signatures can fool you. They certainly fool students who are new to looking
for asteroids. It is important that you as the teacher know the difference.
The better acquainted you are with the software, knowing true and false signatures,
and producing clean and accurate MPC Reports...the better your students will
do in the International Asteroid Search Campaign. These are the keys to their
success.
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Here I've copied contents of an email from IASC's Michael Kran on getting
up and running with this project on the room 705 computers...
Here are the steps I consider when introducing someone to IASC:
1. download Astrometrica,
2. install the MPCOrbs.dat database,
3. update it from the Internet, Using the Internet, Update command
4. install the ARI-24 and ARI-32 .cfg files (ARI-24 for the 24" scope,
which we'll be using)
http://iasc.hsutx.edu/Astrometrica/Software/Configurations.zip
5. do the six test examples.
http://iasc.hsutx.edu/Astrometrica/Instructions/Practice%20Image%20Sets.zip
Instructions, software links, and sample images are ALL lists on the IASC website.
http://iasc.hsutx.edu/index_files/Page389.htm
And specifically,
http://iasc.hsutx.edu/Astrometrica/Instructions/Quick%20Start%20Guide.doc &
http://iasc.hsutx.edu/Astrometrica/Instructions/Instructions%20for%20Using%20Astrometrica.doc
6. Furthermore, you should complete the sample exercises, generate MPC reports,
put them into the proper for matter for submission to Dr. Miller
7. submit the those text files to your instructor for review.
Reading the additional information on detecting false signatures would be very
much to your advantage.
http://iasc.hsutx.edu/Astrometrica/Instructions/Signature%20Guide.doc
-Michael Kran