Folks - what kind of data do we need for the target list?

My current list, per target, would look something like this:


Target
NCGXXX

RA
00 00 00

Dec
00 00 00

Alt
00 00 00

Az
00 00 00

Magnitude
00.0

Size (Arcmin)
2 * 5


Anything need adding?

Cheers
Dave

If any image contains more than one galaxy (and the target galaxy isn't centred in the frame) then adding a position angle might help identify the target galaxy - however, that would also mean that you would have to give the orientation for every image also - i.e. "north up" or similar. Hopefully this won't be a problem.

Phil.

Transit time. (for those of us with GEM's which need to be fipped at the meridian)

Guys,

I'm writing some software to generate a list of observable targets configurable to a location, date and time. As part of this, I generated this file . It is an extract from the full NGC/IC catalogue. I excluded everything but galaxies, then everyone where no magnitude was given, then everything below declination -30 (any object with a dec below -30 never gets above 8degrees from Ireland and so is not practical to image.

Anyway just though some might be interested in this file in itself.
Field descriptions are in the first record and the file is CR/LF ANSI text.

Just thought, I would post a WIP screenshot of what I'm doing. Have I forgotten anything??

Dave - that looks great.

I'm not sure how we're going to pick the targets. There's a good bit of data out there giving basic parameters. Type, size, brightness etc. We should stipulate the data points and their parameters. e.g. "Magnitude = greater than 14".

We then need to define the catalogues we will use to pull out all the objects that match our criteria.

When we've done that, we can then generate the list.

I would like to see the list as a semi-permanent static list - I don't think it would be good to keep adding or deleting targets - that would confuse things. Perhaps we could review the list annually or something similar.

The ultimate goal of this thread though is to get a list of target galaxies together.

I'd appreciate all your thoughts on this.

By the way, I've started on Eamonn Ansbro's list and populated it with additional data (RA, DEC etc etc). see: www.astroshack.net/SNSM.php

Dave G - if we get this static list defined, could your app then pick out the targets currently observable?

Cheers
Dave

Dave G - if we get this static list defined, could your app then pick out the targets currently observable?

Yep easy peasy. The current file posted in a previous post lists all galaxies as described, but there is no reason why we can't cut this down to a pre-defined list of galaxies and the app would function as normal listing the observable targets. I decided to re-write this using the dot net framework to avoid having to install un-necessary legacy runtime files. WIll be done in a day or two.

Just give me the names of the agreed targets and i'll generate a data file just for these ones only.

Nice one - cheers Dave and thanks for spending the time doing this code. It is very much appreciated.

I think we should be aiming for a target list of 1000+ galaxies. The more targets we have the better chance we have of discovering a SN. That said, of course not all targets would be imageable throughout the year - but if we could have say 800+ imageable targets every day of the year, that would be a good sample I think (totally of the top of my head by the way ).

One more question Dave - is there any chance you could write the application so it can be accesed through the web? Or would it be a case of participants just downloading the app and running it locally? Your call...

Cheers and thanks again.

Dave

If any image contains more than one galaxy (and the target galaxy isn't centred in the frame) then adding a position angle might help identify the target galaxy - however, that would also mean that you would have to give the orientation for every image also - i.e. "north up" or similar. Hopefully this won't be a problem.

Phil.

Phil the nice thing about ACP and Maxim software is they expose all aspects of your observatory and images to scripting. By making use of this you can pretty much do anything you like including adding text or drawing on images. However with ACP all of the targets should be perfectly centred as ACP uses pinpoint to plate solve each image and will re-centre if the error exceeds a perdefined threshold.