Starship Asterisk*

The Rosemary Hill (RH) CONCAM2 in central Florida continues to run without major problems.

- RJN

The RH CONCAM has been down for some time because of communications problems. Today U. Florida professor John Oliver, who oversees the site, emailed in to say that the amplifier on the communications tower has been replaced and so it should be a short amount of time until the RH CONCAM2 is back on the air.

The computer is up, but the CCD doesn't respond.

Is it just me or is there a lot of light pollution at the rosemary hill concam? It seems like the image is really light or cloudy all the time?

I have been unable to obtain an image from the RH station. Has it been taken offline?

The RH CONCAM shows "on" but the date at the bottom of the image shows 2005/02/08, why is that? The most recent image seems to show some atmospheric interferance, I'm not sure.

deborah wrote:The RH CONCAM shows "on" but the date at the bottom of the image shows 2005/02/08, why is that? The most recent image seems to show some atmospheric interferance, I'm not sure.

You are correct, there has been heavy cloud cover so far tonight at RH. The clouds appear to be clearing, unfortunately the moon is now saturating most of the image.

RH is up and running although the moon light obscures most of the image.

I notice that RH does not generate photometry files, is there a reason for this?

I did it! Thanks for the help.

I am also not able to access the photometry files for RH. Just two days ago, I was having no problem with it.

I have just been checking through randomly and it appears there are no photometry files at all for any date?

You're right, I went through randomly and cannot access any of the photometry files for any date. I must have been in a different Concam site when I did access photometry and thought I was in RH.

Can I contact John Oliver about this myself, or has that already been done?

deborah wrote:You're right, I went through randomly and cannot access any of the photometry files for any date. I must have been in a different Concam site when I did access photometry and thought I was in RH.

Can I contact John Oliver about this myself, or has that already been done?

I don't believe this is a problem with the Concam but rather a problem on our end with how the server is processing the data. I will ask our programmer when next I see him. Also, it is possible you did see photometry files for Rh, I know some did exist at one point, I think they may have been erased somehow.

RH seems to be working fine with the exception of the photometry files, however, we have overcast skies and a full moon. I can't wait for a nice dark clear night.

Thanks, Deborah! Yes, we are near full moon and for many CONCAMs, particularly the CONCAM2s like the CONCAM2 in RH, the full moon washes out most of the frame the whole night through. I can promise that things will get better in a week or so and likely be pretty great during new moon. You might keep an eye on CP during that time, too. In my humble opinion, the images are spectacular then! The Milky Way arcs across the sky. Planets, constellations, and bright stars shine. It's the same night sky our great great great grandparents knew pretty well. It will be there our whole lives. I think it's beautiful.

- RJN

RH Concam shows on but still shows yesterday's date. The photometry files are still not available, Vic will have someone look into that.

The RH Concam 2 continues to operate normally. Hopefully the weather will improve soon as the moon is waning and I am looking forward to a good image.

Really nice image from RH this evening. Please tell me what the yellow box is indicating to me and what the streak is going from top to bottom of the image
http://nightskylive.net/rh/

deborah wrote:Really nice image from RH this evening. Please tell me what the yellow box is indicating to me and what the streak is going from top to bottom of the image
http://nightskylive.net/rh/

Well, that was dumb, this is live! By the time you read this message you aren't going to see any steak going from top to bottom! But you know what I mean about the yellow boxes, please remind me about those. Thanks!

Hi Deborah!

A yellow box is drawn by Lior's WOLF software when it detects a "transient", something on an image that wasn't there before. Many times transients are not real astronomical things, but rather airplanes or instrumental flashes on the camera. The transient detection software is still being developed and is not yet fully reliable. Also, at RH, there are a lot of airplane trails, so that was probably what you saw.

BTW, as you might know, to post an image that does not update, just go into the archive, find that day, find that time, and click on "ANNOTATED". That image will come up. To show that image to every here on The Asterisk, just type being sure NOT to include unecessary spaces.

Hope this is a help!

- RJN

RH Concam appears to be malfunctioning. Shows on but the date is 2005/03/06. Could be adjustments are being made?

RH Concam is back online and returning a nice image. Photometry files still not available.

http://nightskylive.net/rh/rh050312/rh0 ... 03132p.jpg
Nice image from RH this evening. Not nearly as nice as CP though!