Messier Catalog
This lab will be performed if time is permitting. It's also quite
fun (I know, I keep saying that. I like the night labs, OK?) and
if we get good images, you can get copies!
The point of this lab is to familiarize you with the Messier
Catalog and the CCD camera on the 18" telescope. A CCD camera is
essentially a digital camera (astronomers have been using this
technology for about 2 decades). CCDs, as you'll learn, are far
more efficient at taking astronomical images than film, and also
give faster results. And they make pretty, digital pictures we
can print or put on our web
pages.
What I want you to do on this lab is to read the whole lab before
coming to lab. The first two parts of the lab have questions for
you to answer (just a few, not at all many). Then you get
to select three (or more!) objects to image with the camera. I
(or my co-observer) will move the telescope to your target and
take your images for you. We'll get you printouts as quickly as
we can (probably not that night, though). If they images are
particularly good, we'll submit them to Keith Gleason for
consideration for Picture of the Month.
John Weiss
Last modified: Sat Jan 12 21:33:18 MST 2002