On March 16 , 2019 Fifteen Years of the Faulkes Telescope Project
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On March 16th, 2019 fifteen years of the Faulkes Telescope Project Our participation in this great adventure Andre Debackere March 2019 We started observations with the Faulkes Telescopes in January 2010. We studied different types of astronomical objects as part of - scientific workshop called “ASAM” at College Le Monteil, Monistrol sur Loire, France - European Comenius project, 6 schools in 5 countries - educational activities, 3 teachers and 2 schools - personal research, hunting binaries, measurements and discoveries 1) Scientific workshop from January 2010 to June 2016 with a dozen college students (12-16 years old) a) Our first subject of study : Trans-Neptunians and dwarf planets, astrometry and animations Learn how to use the Faulkes Telescope interface and the tools as “target visibility” and “exposure time calculator”. To be able to recognize the target in the stellar field by using ALADIN, CDS, Strasbourg, France and ASTROMETRICA, Herbert Raab, Austria. Make animations showing the motion of the asteroid against the starry sky background (with SALSAJ, EUHOU or ASTROMETRICA). How to locate an object in the sky, celestial coordinates (right ascension and declination), their measurements with ASTOMETRICA. The 2m telescopes (FTN & FTS) are powerful instruments so we started by studying the trans- Neptunians, very distant asteroids some of which are candidates for the rank of dwarf planets as for example Varuna and Orcus. (20000) Varuna discovered in 2000 and (90482) Orcus discovered in 2004 are both trans- Neptunian object from the Kuiper belt and are probably dwarf planet. 1 COD F65 CON Debackere Andre, France [andre.debackere@free.fr] OBS Debackere Andre, ASAM MEA Debackere Andre, ASAM TEL FTN + CCD ACK MPCReport file updated 2010.08.28 15:20:14 AC2 andre.debackere@free.fr NET USNO-B1.0 20000 C2010 01 22.46922 07 31 34.171+26 02 21.30 19.81R F65 90482 C2010 01 22.47291 09 47 22.019-06 32 05.80 18.40R F65 ----- end ----- The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has accepted five dwarf planets: Ceres in the inner Solar System and four in the trans-Neptunian region: Pluto, Eris, Haumea, and Makemake. Animations of Pluto and Ceres May 18th, 2010 - Faulkes Telescope Project, Showcase, Scholls Showcase, Detectiong The Dwarfs http://www.faulkes-telescope.com/2018/05/detecting-the-dwarfs/ - Images of Haumea and Makemake on February 16th, 2010 and animation of Eris on October 15th, 2010 http://dbrastronomie.pagesperso-orange.fr/doc/dwarft.html b) Astrometry, photometry, lightcurve, color index and asteroid size calculation. 2 FTN observations from November 1st, 2010 to December 20th 2013 of Jihlava. (2080) Jihlava is a main-belt asteroid discovered on February 27, 1976 by the Swis astronomer Paul Wild at Zimmerwald Observatory located 10 kilometers south of Bern, Switzerland http://dbrastronomie.pagesperso-orange.fr/doc/jihlava.pdf c) Observations and astrometry of several asteroids (data sent to the Minor Planet Center https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/mpc.html) (14)Irene, (26)Proserpina, (27)Euterpe, (36)Atalante, (46)Hestia, (337)Devosa, (480)Hansa, (596)Scheila, (626)Notburga, (2751)Campbell, (2873)Binzel, (4486)Mithra, (6371)Heinlein, (6400)Georgealexander, (8374)Horodata, (12008)Kandrup, (12735)1991VV1, (15836)1995DA2, (24250)Luteolson, (38083)Rhadamanthus, (40314)1999KR16, (42355)Typhon,(231666)Aisymnos, (470523)2008CS190, (49411)1998XT51, (50000)Quaoar, (52872)Okyrhoe, (53311)Deucalion, (58534)Logos, (253841)2003YG118, (308379)2005RS43, (470523)2008 CS190, 1999 CX131, 2003 YW179, 2000 QL251, 2008 CB10 d) Comets - An unexpected observation: Comet-like Asteroid P/2010 A2-January 22th, 2010 Stacked images of the tracking comet's motion. Note the mag 23 object seems to have a small tail. If this interpretation is correct, two small and previously unknown asteroids recently collided, creating a shower of debris that is being swept back into a tail from the collision site by the pressure of sunlight," says Jewitt. The main nucleus of P/2010 A2 would be the surviving remnant of this so-called hypervelocity collision. So, where does asteroid 2010 AA15 fit with this hypothesis? No mention is made of this 400-metre body, which may also have survived the postulated collision. Maybe the 'remnant' associated with the comet first struck 2010AA15 and 3 rebounded largely intact along with its debris cloud.It seems that no-one has reported astrometry of 2010 AA15 since January 19.The two objects have very similar orbits although how similar I am not sure since the astrometry of the comet will have limited accuracy owing to the lack of a definite pseudonucleus to measure. Richard Miles (BAA) said: “However, your exposure time has been a little long and you have lengthened the images of point sources like the 2010 asteroid AA15 and the associated major fragment of magnitude 23 because of the movement of these objects while the shutter of the camera was open. I have just submitted astrometry of this asteroid along with astrometry of the 130-meter 'remnant' thanks to images taken under very good seeing by André Debackère, ASAM College Le Monteil (see below). > COD F65 > COM Stack of 4 images, total integration time = 320 s > OBS A. Debackère > MEA R. Miles > TEL 2.0-m f/10.0 Ritchey-Chretien + CCD > ACK MPCReport file updated 2010.02.02 16:35:04 > AC2 rmiles@baa.u-net.com > NET USNO-B1.0 > K10A15A C2010 01 22.46034 06 52 28.77 +27 44 00.5 21.2 V F65 > K10A15A C2010 01 22.46234 06 52 28.64 +27 44 00.2 22.0 V F65 > K10A15A C2010 01 22.46438 06 52 28.52 +27 43 59.7 21.5 V F65 > K10A15A C2010 01 22.46649 06 52 28.41 +27 43 59.3 21.4 V F65 > FRAG001 C2010 01 22.46338 06 52 18.49 +27 42 55.2 23.8 V F65 > ----- end ----- 4 - Comet 29P, February 23th, 2010 - Comet 81P, April 22th, 2010 IRIS rotational gradient (highlighting the radial structures of the comet by eliminating the circular structures) 5 - Comet 103P, October 13th, 2010 Using the Danny Duggans & Sarah Roberts course Faulkes Telescope Project, Education Resources, Astronomical Imaging (Color Imaging) Basic Color Imaging, Making Color Images Making Color Images with SalsaJ. - Comet 17P Holmes February 17th, 2015 6 e) Supernova SN2016adj observations from February 10th to March 26th, 2016 7 http://www.faulkes-telescope.com/2018/04/photometry-from-france/ f) Variable stars photometry (data sent to AAVSO https://www.aavso.org/) SS Cygni, May 17th, 2010 FTN (It is the prototype of the subclass of dwarf novae that show only normal eruptions. It typically rises from 12th magnitude to 8th magnitude for 1–2 days every 7 or 8 weeks). V 404 Cyg, V 694 Mon, V 3661 Oph g) Unusual binaries - SFXT IGR J17544-2619, May 18th, 2010, FTS Supergiant fast X-ray transients (SFXTs) are high mass X-ray binaries associated with OB supergiant companions and characterised by an X-ray flaring behaviour whose dynamical range reaches 5 orders of magnitude on timescales of a few hundred to thousands of seconds. - GX 339-4, June 24th, 2010, FTS Moderately strong variable galactic low-mass X-ray binary (LMXB) source and black-hole candidate that flares from time to time. From spectroscopic measurements, the mass of the black-hole was found to be at least of 5.8 solar masses. During the outbursts GX 339-4 shows evolution of quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs). 8 h) Some color pictures NGC 2419 January 18th 2010, FTN 9 PGC 1032280 January 26th 2010, FTN M61 May 13th 2010, FTN 10 M92 May 17th 2010, FTN 11 M20 Trifid May 18th 2010, FTS 12 M22 May 18th 2010, FTS 13 M17 June 24th 2010, FTS 14 NGC 2392 December 8th 2010, FTN 15 M1 October 15th 2014, FTN 2) European Comenius project called “In orbit with Europa” from November 2011 to June 2013. A school partnership coordinated by André Debackère: - Leonor Cabral, Escola Secundária da Cidadela, Portugal - Richard Singleton, Moreton Hall, Shropshire, England - John Murphy, Regina Mundi College, Douglas, Cork, Ireland. - Conrad Stevens, The Leigh Technology Academy, Dartford, England - Sebastian Soberski, Tomek Maja Skown, High Schools, Poland - André Debackère, Monistrol sur Loire, France 16 Here are the main highlights of our project: - We propose a multidisciplinary and multilateral approach of the study of asteroids. We wish to enable a collective study of the orbit, rotation and shape of asteroids with high quality robotic telescopes, accessible to our partnership. This initiative aims at interesting and exciting children to do science on our Solar System, but also to science in general and to establish a link with languages, literature, theater and art. - The shape of our project will be an opportunity for young people to get a new view of science teaching, but also to understand the networking between different disciplinaries. - Numerous European students are not motivated by sciences. In addition, girls are under- represented in physical sciences. For various reasons, people in the various regions of the European Union do not have the opportunity to communicate with other countries. This could be understand by the remoteness of rural areas, poverty or other aspects. - This project will enable pupils to get involve in a real scientific project, but also to learn the culture and language of other European countries. The association of science with other topics will provide different means to pupils to communicate and to develop team work through a set of common goals to reach. Some of our most outstanding works: - Kariba, January 26th, 2012 The asteroid (1676) Kariba was discovered by Cyril V. Jackson on June 15, 1939. http://dbrastronomie.pagesperso-orange.fr/doc/kariba_cdl.html - Claudiomaccone, October 11th, 2012 (11264) Claudiomaccone, is a stony background asteroid and binary system from the middle regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 3 kilometers in diameter.