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  • Ville Puoskari

First photometric observations!

I have started using some of my imaging time to contribute in scientific observations that can be done with a small telescope. Because my observatory is automated it can run for a very long time without human interaction. This makes it very easy to measure things like exoplanet transits, variable stars or asteroid light curves. Few years ago I used equipment of my local astronomy club to measure asteroid light curves, so it was natural to start with asteroids with a remote setup too because Im quite unfamiliar with exoplanet transit or variable star photometry. Observations that I made are uploaded to Gaia-GOSA (Gaia - Groundbased Observational Service for Asteroids). Gaia space telescope can measure light with very high precision but for a short amount of time. From Earth amateurs can measure for a long time but with limited accuracy. Combining these two techniques it is possible to use absolutized measurements made with Gaia to correct uncertainty with ground based observations. I highly recommend doing these observations to anyone with decent imaging telescopes, its quite effortless because they handle all of the target selection at Institute Astronomical Observatory of the Adam Mickiewicz University (AO AMU). Also users dont need to process the data, they do it for you and youre able to see the lightcurves generated by them. Here is a screenshot of one of the light curves that uses my data (source: www.gaiagosa.eu).


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