using AAVSOnet

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Thu, 05/26/2022 - 12:02

The AAVSO maintains AAVSOnet, a set of robotic telescopes located around the world, many in pristine locations.  These include systems from a Televue NP101 refractor to several 24-inch (61cm) telescopes.  You have access to Spectrum Analyzer diffraction gratings for low-resolution spectroscopy; an eShel spectrograph; Sloan as well as Johnson/Cousins filters; a diffuser for bright, high precision photometry, neutral density filters for bright targets, etc.  We welcome submissions from beginners wanting to learn about photometry, observers wanting to participate in AAVSO Alert campaigns, advanced photometrists, and the general member community.  Please see

https://www.aavso.org/aavsonet

for information and proposal submission forms.

Arne

Neutral density filters

Hi Arne,

you mentioned in your post that some AAVSOnet scopes have neutral density filters for bright star photometry. Where in the imaging train are these placed?

I am thinking of using a full aperture photographic ND filter in front of my 4" refractor, or perhaps a smaller ND filter in a manual filter tray in front of a filter wheel. Which would you recommend?

Where were the AAVSOnet ND filters sourced from? Cheers,

Mark

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Filters

I believe, but may be incorrect, that Arne's note was about older configurations of systems. Presently I do not believe there are any diffuser or ND filters available on AAVSONet systems. 

Filters are all near focus in filter wheels.

Be careful with the optical quality of any over-objective filters. Its a lot easier to make small 1.25" or 2" flat filters than 4"+ filters!

Peter

BPEC

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
ND and diffusers are availableon BSM_NH2

BSM_NH2 has a dual filter wheel configuration that offers some 33 filters!
  

B,V,R,I,SU,SG,SR,SI,ZS,C,D,STY,
Bdiff,Vdiff,Rdiff,Idiff,SGdiff,SRdiff,SIdiff,
Bnd09,Vnd09,Rnd09,Ind09,SGnd09,SRnd09,SInd09,
Bnd18,Vnd18,Rnd18,Ind18,SGnd18,SRnd18,SInd18
 

diff is with the diffuser added, and there are two ND addons available. I've forgot the specs on the nd09 and nd18

If you want to experiment you may submit a proposal to the AAVSOnet; we're eager to have people try them out!

George

 

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Latest information on AAVSOnet configurations

Sorry about the confusion, Peter.

The latest information on the AAVSOnet scopes is available at  https://app.aavso.org/aavsonet/telescopes2/?&active=true

We will soon (this month) updates to the AAVSOnet webpages that will show this current information.

George

 

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Accessing the AAVSOnet telescopes table

Peter,

The data from   https://app.aavso.org/aavsonet/telescopes2/?&active=1     you can add a scope name:  &name=bsm_nh2

It is a raw dump in json format, almost but not really a report. You can screen scrape ( Ctrl-a, Ctrl-c  ) and paste to a text editor (Ctrl-v)

What are you looking for?

George