Click on the links below to see the animated images of the asteroids "5 Astraea" and "41 Daphne". These images were taken on Tuesday April 15, 2008. The May 2008 Sky & Telescope magazine had an article entitled "Springtime Asteroids" by Alan MacRobert. After reading the article, I thought it would be interesting to make an animated image of the two asteroids. I was also interested in trying out my recently purchased Mountain Instruments MI-250 mount along with CCD Commander image automation software. I set up CCD commander to automate the sequence of imaging both of the asteroids. First the mount slewed to 5 Astraea and took 3 1-minute exposures of the asteroid. Next the mount slewed to 41 Daphne and took 3 1-minute exposures. I built a 5 minute delay into the CCD Commander to script before the sequence was repeated. In all, 6 sets of exposures were made on each asteroid.
Click here to view an Animated image of 5 Astraea (2MB file)
Animated image of 41 Daphne (2MB file)
The following chart was photocopied from the May 2008 Sky & Telescope magazine on page 70. The photo was part of the article entitled "Springtime Asteroids" by Alan MacRobert.
Telescope: TMB
152 F8 Apo Refractor
Focal Length: 1208
mm
Mount: Mountain
Instruments MI-250
Camera: SBIG
ST10XME
Exposure: 60 seconds
Other: ST402ME
autoguider and Stellarvue
SV80s Guide Scope
Copyright(c) 2008 Doug
Sanqunetti All rights reserved.
doug@dougsastro.net
Astro
Images
