Wayaway Observatory Introduction

Attention Astronomy Students & Teachers, Advanced Amateurs, and Professionals!

Are you doing an astronomy project that requires scientifically valid, high-quality, and authentic data? Do you need data, but are unable to acquire it yourself due to lack of resources or lack of a clear dark sky? Don’t need a large telescope at a major observatory to collect the data you need? Need to supplement or follow up with your already existing data? Need a quick look at something new in the sky? Don’t want to spend a lot of money or take the time and effort to collect the data yourself?

Wayaway Observatory is offering image data products for astrometry (the measurements of positions of targets in the sky) and photometry (the measurements of brightness of targets in the sky).  You tell Wayaway Observatory where, when, and how to look, and we will acquire the data (using our telescope and CCD camera facility) and send it to you. This is not an automated telescope system – all data is acquired manually with individual care and attention.

Wayaway Observatory is located in southeastern Arizona, USA, which can have up to 300 clear nights per year. This is also one of the darkest locations in the United States, is at an elevation of 1280 meters above sea level, and is (not surprisingly) a center for several major observatories including Kitt Peak National Observatory, the MMT Observatory, the Catalina Observatory, and the Mount Graham International Observatory. Access to these professional observatories is highly desired, extremely competitive, and expensive. This makes them inaccessible to the vast majority of people who need data for their projects.

Requesting data from Wayaway Observatory is as easy as filling out a simple form (still under development - for now email cosmiclettuce@gmail.com) providing information¹ about the observation². This will determine how much time is needed to acquire your data. You can also pre-purchase blocks of time, and get help planning your observation. You choose the date and time of your observation (minimum 24-hour notice) depending on when you need the data to be taken and what time is available on the observing calendar. You pay for the time in advance when you schedule it on the calendar. No project proposals are needed, no telescope allocation committees will decide whether your project is “good enough” to use our facility, no travel is required, and the data is made available to you within 24 hours of acquiring it. You can even connect with the telescope operator “live” (via Google Hangouts) to participate in your data acquisition. Yes, there is a chance that weather conditions or some system problem will not allow the observation to take place. If that happens, your data will obviously not be acquired – but that is one of the risks and costs of doing astronomy. If an observation doesn’t take place because of poor weather conditions or because of facility problems, you can always reschedule for another observation session. While refunds aren't possible, your project will receive priority consideration when rescheduling an observation session. Wayaway Observatory will work very hard to ensure that facility downtime is kept to a minimum.

Delivery of data products include everything you need to produce calibrated, scientifically valid data in FITS (Flexible Image Transport System) format. This includes:

• raw images acquired using parameters specified by you in your request
• flat fields (including flat dark frames)
• dark frames
• bias frames

This data can either be emailed to you or dropped in a cloud drive that you’ll have access to.

Data Quality

Data quality is something that very few facilities discuss or consider, but is a very important topic. The quality of the data comes down to accuracy and precision.  Accuracy is a metric of how close to the ‘actual value’ a measurement is.  Precision is a metric of repeatability.

In order to be scientifically valid, astrometric measurements need to have an accuracy and precision of at most the pixel scale. Photometric measurements need to have an accuracy of no more than 100 milli-magnitudes, and a precision of no more than 100 milli-magnitudes.  Wayaway Observatory delivers better than this level of quality.  Please email cosmiclettuce@gmail.com for more information.

Cost

The cost is US$0.79 per minute of telescope time. ‘Telescope Time’ is defined as beginning the moment the telescope begins to slew to your target to the end of data acquisition (including taking dark and bias frames). You do not pay for the time required to align the telescope (so it properly points and tracks), or to take flat fields.

The total time it takes to acquire data for single target and exposure time is:

T = Slew + [(I_time + DL) * I_exp] + [(D_time + DL) * D_exp)] + [DL * B_exp]

Where Slew is the time is takes to move the telescope to your target and acquire it in the field of view; I_time is the raw image exposure time, I_exp is the number of raw image exposures; D_time is the exposure time of the dark frame, D_exp is the number of dark frames; B_exp is the number of of bias frames; DL is the time is takes to download images from the camera to the computer. Typically I_time and D_time are the same.

For example, if you wanted to acquire ten, 1 second images using 1x1 binning allowing for a typical telescope slew time, then

Slew = 120 s I_time = 1 s

D_time = 1 s I_exp = 10

B_exp = 10 D_exp = 10

DL = 14.12 s

and T = 120 + [(1 + 14.12) * 10] + [(1 + 14.12) * 10] + [14.12 * 10]

= 120 + 151.12 + 151.12 + 141.2

= 563.44 sec = 9.39 min

In this example, to schedule this observation you would pay US$7.42.

Other Services

In addition to data acquisition, Wayaway Observatory offers six additional services:

Service	Description	Cost
Observation planning	Assist you in setting the parameters for your observation	$5 per observation
Image reduction	This is taking the raw images and applying the calibration images in order to produce a scientifically valid image that will be usable for astrometric or photometric measurements.	$3 per image
Absolute astrometric measurements	This is determining the absolute position of a target (or targets) in an image. Determining the absolute positions of targets requires computing a “plate solution” to calculate the “world coordinate system” (WCS) parameters for that image. Once this is done, the positions (Right Ascension and Declination, for example) of the target(s) can be calculated	$2 per image
Relative astrometric measurements	This is determining the relative position of a target (or targets) in an image. Determining the relative positions of targets requires selecting a “base” target in the image and then measuring the distances to all other targets in the image	$2 per image
Absolute photometric measurements	This is determining the brightness (magnitude) of a target (or targets) in an image, and requires an additional measurement (usually a 2nd image, unless there’s a standard star in the FOV of the target image) of one or more “standard stars” of known magnitude	$2 per image
Relative photometric measurements	This is determining the brightness (magnitude) of a target (or targets) relative to either a “base” target or relative too all other targets in the FOV	$2 per image

Facilities

As of December 2018, Wayaway Observatory has the following facilities:

Telescope: 0.2m Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope (a Celestron NexStar 8se, Alt-Az mount)

CCD Camera: SBIG ST-7E (TE cooled, 9 micron pixels)

Computer: Windows XP, CCDSoft Version 5

Field of View³: about 12 arcmin by 8 arcmin
Tracking: Sidereal

Image Dimensions, Scale, and typical Download Time:

Binning	Image Dimensions	Image Scale	Download Time
1x1	762 x 510 pixels	0.936 arcsec / pixel	14.12 seconds
2x2	381 x 255 pixels	1.872 arcsec / pixel	5.03 seconds
3x3	254 x 170 pixels	2.808 arcsec / pixel	3.16 seconds

Filters: Red Green Blue Clear.

Exposure time: At this time, for highest-quality data the maximum possible exposure time is 2 seconds.  For longer exposures, several images can be added together (or "stacked").

Please email cosmiclettuce@gmail.com for more information about filters, limiting magnitudes, and any other questions you have regarding facilities.

1 Date, time, target name(s) and/or coordinate(s), number of images to acquire, exposure time(s), filter(s), binning and/or sub-arrays.

2 An ‘Observation’ is defined as a set of data (collected contiguously) with the same parameters.

3 Sub-arrays are possible, which translates to smaller image dimensions, smaller FOV, and shorter download time

Student Research

In a recent AAVSO Communications email, there was an article written by a high-school student about data collection and research he did on the suspected variable star Ross 114 entitled "Observations of the Suspected Variable Ross 114 (NSV 13523)".  Here is a link to the paper, but what I want to highlight is the last paragraph of the paper, which I quote below:

"Finally, we offer the following comments on the educational aspects of this project. The lead author undertook this research as part of Yerkes Observatory’s McQuown Scholars program for high school students. He feels a research project such this one can be of tremendous value for a student exploring an interest in astronomy. The opportunity to work one-on-one with a professional astronomer and to learn about and see first hand the need to collect and analyze data over an extended period of time as well as the effort that goes into writing and publishing a scientific paper clearly showed the nature of astronomical work. It was incredibly satisfying at the end to find our plate and CCD variations were in agreement. Being able to obtain CCD observations during the time period that was lost (2016 June–August) would have greatly helped in determining the light curve and its period, but this unexpected problem probably also illustrated a feature of observational astronomy work.  Overall, he sees this project as certainly one of the most valuable experiences he had in high school."

I've made bold that last sentence.

This statement, I hope, will inspire other students to consider using astronomical data in their next science project.  Please consider Wayaway Observatory as your data source!

What Projects Can I Do?

There are a large number of projects that can be done in astronomy.  I've separated these into two lists.  The first one are projects that I've personally confirmed using data from Wayaway Observatory.  The second list are projects that are possible, but not yet confirmed.  Eventually, I will confirm every project.

Confirmed Projects

Single (non-variable) Stars
astrometry
photometry (magnitude, color)
seeing (stellar fwhm) measurements (spacial and temporal)
sky background measurements
atmospheric dispersion

Binary / Multiple Star Systems
photometry (magnitudes, colors)
astrometry
position angle(s)

Open and Globular Clusters
astrometry (star distribution)
star density profile
photometry (magnitude, color)

Possible Projects

Variable Stars
temporal photometry (magnitude, color) (example: HW Virginis)
transient events (flares)

Planetary Nebulae
photometry (magnitude, color) of central star
nebula structure
radial profile

Reflection / Emission Nebulae
photometry (magnitude, color) of various regions
nebula structure

Spiral Galaxies
feature astrometry
feature photometry (magnitude, color)
radial profile
shape (major/minor axis, position angle)
spiral structure

Elliptical Galaxies
astrometry
photometry (magnitude, color)
radial profile
shape (major/minor axis, position angle)

Irregular Galaxies
astrometry
photometry (magnitude, color)
radial profile
shape

Asteroids / Planets / Moons
astrometry (sky position, orbit determination)
photomery (magnitude, color, and light curve)

Comets
astrometry (position, orbit determination)
photometry (magnitudes and light curves of components)
profile / shape
transient events (outbursts, breakups)

Novae and Supernovae
astrometry (absolute and relative to host galaxy)
photometry (magnitude, color, and light curve)

Exoplanet Transits
photometry (magnitude, color, and light curve)

Scheduling an Observation

Wayaway Observatory is in its infancy and not all the awesome infrastructure is available yet for you to request and set up an observing session yourself.  At the moment, you will have to email observing details to the telescope operator at cosmiclettuce@gmail.com.  The operator will calculate the observing time required to perform the observation(s) and email you back a detailed quote.  Payments are made via paypal.  Once the payment is received, the observation will be entered into the observing calendar.  A confirmation email and a receipt will be sent to you, and you'll also get a receipt from paypal.

The information needed for each observation is:

• Date and Time of Observation (UTC)
• Target Name and/or Equatorial Coordinates (Right Ascension and Declination)
• Number of Images to Acquire
• Exposure Time (seconds)
• Filter (Red, Green, Blue, Clear)
• Binning (1x1, 2x2, 3x3) or Subarray (offset from origin in x and y, x size, and y ysize)
• Google Hangout Request (optional)

Please make a separate request for each observation.  Multiple observation requests can be made in a single email. If you need assistance planning your observation, please contact the telescope operator at cosmiclettuce@gmail.com.

When the observation is complete, all raw and calibration data will be made available to you within 24 hours either via email or placed on a cloud drive that you'll have access to.