I believe that YSOs are an excellent target for DSLR photometry.
I switched over almost two years ago from bright semi-regulars in the binocular program and noticed an immediate and significant improvement in measurement accuracy. It seemed to be a genuine sweet spot for DSLR photometry.
YSOs in the program are generally neutral in color, and relatively bright. I shoot over half my program with a 180mm lens from a dark suburban site. I can reach 15th magnitude using my C14 configured as a Schmidt camera, but the vast majority of my stars are brighter than 14. I can cover the entire range of most YSOs with a signal-noise ratio over 20.
YSOs are generally well distributed along the galactic plane, and wide field imaging makes acquiring images easier. I’m also creating an image library for future comparison. These objects are associated with nebulae, and changes to the star fields are also important to detect.
So, if you’re looking for a good way to use your DSLR, I urge you to give this a try!
Hi John:
You stated: "I switched over almost two years ago from bright semi-regulars in the binocular program (sic - to YSOs) and noticed an immediate and significant improvement in measurement accuracy. It seemed to be a genuine sweet spot for DSLR photometry."
I find this observation be very interesting and wonder if you could help identify the possible reasons for it?
1. Did you use the identical camera for both stellar types? The semi-regulars are generally late spectral type (M, C etc) while the YSOs vary more and are usually bluer.
2. Do you usually limit your DSLR photometry to the Green pixels?
3. Does this support the observation by others that very red stars generally yield poor agreement with non-transformed DSLR bayer array magnitudes?
4. Did you determine the agreement by comparing your magnitudes with the mags provided by others in the AID/light curve generator?
5. Could you give some specific examples of the significance of your 'improvement"? Observers are always looking for guidelines about how good or bad their own results are!
I think it would be very helpful to generalize your observation, to identify what types of stars may not be reliably observed by DSLR users, at least without transformation? And to provide some guidance about what level of accuracy is reasonable to expect?
Ken