Forum der Vereinigung der Sternfreunde

Hi WR Aficionados,

Some news from Teide:

The weather of the last days was good and data are transfered to Montreal. Today, the seeing isn´t good and it is windy. Nevertheless, we are able to obtain good spectra!

The technique is working well since we have arrived - no, absolutly no technical problems!!!

Cheers,

Ted & Daniel

_________________
Daniel P. Sablowski

https://www.kunstmann.de/buch/axel_hack ... 42000/t-2/
https://dpsablowski.wordpress.com
https://github.com/DPSablowski
https://www.aip.de/mitglieder/dsablowski/

It appears the malfunctioning equipment bug has migrated westward a bit. Declination motor and encoder are fried on my AP1200 mount so the parts were boxed and sent to Chicago today for repair. Until I get them back I'm dead in the water here. Of course the weather is great - after having only a couple of clear nights in the past month! Woof!

Mike

Too sad, Mike. But it is as it is. I hope you can jump in again before the campaign ends. Good work, anyway!

At Teide team 7 works professionally cool and smooth like a sewing machine. I just checked the Montreal server and since they are on the summit they only lost one single night due to clouds. Well done! During the previous period we had a data acquisition gap of 13 nights, though. I hope other observers could fill it (couldn't find it on the server).

Cheers, Thomas

Seems that we will be clouded out tonight!

_________________
Daniel P. Sablowski

https://www.kunstmann.de/buch/axel_hack ... 42000/t-2/
https://dpsablowski.wordpress.com
https://github.com/DPSablowski
https://www.aip.de/mitglieder/dsablowski/

Gnaaar! I should say nothing before the end of the night.............

Hi,

the weather forecast for the next two days is not good!
Additional observations are welcome!

Ted & Daniel

_________________
Daniel P. Sablowski

https://www.kunstmann.de/buch/axel_hack ... 42000/t-2/
https://dpsablowski.wordpress.com
https://github.com/DPSablowski
https://www.aip.de/mitglieder/dsablowski/

Hi ConVento members!

I got a preliminary data statistics for WR 134 from Noel (attached) which covers Teide (black) and Mont Megantic (red) observations. It is the number of spectra (30 minutes each) against Julian date. We obviously have been lucky during our mechanical problems at Teide because OMM covered it pretty well. Note that all other amateur observations are not yet included.

Noel also checked the most recent data and confirmed the result from Martin about their very good quality (excellent job by team 7). I now see no reason to expect a reduced data number and quality during the final period at Teide. When running without major time gaps we even can compensate for our one week stop.

Cherio, Thomas

Hellohoho,

bad weather at Teide! No observation at August 20. 21. and also today the weather is still bad...


Your clouded Team 7

_________________
Daniel P. Sablowski

https://www.kunstmann.de/buch/axel_hack ... 42000/t-2/
https://dpsablowski.wordpress.com
https://github.com/DPSablowski
https://www.aip.de/mitglieder/dsablowski/

This is it......

Hi Thomas

I have nights from 11-20 July to upload but August has been terrible here with only 2 partial nights so far.
Given that my coverage beyond the end of the main campaign is likely to be intermittent, which target would be the most useful to keep monitoring beyond the main campaign window?

Robin

----- Original Message ----- From: Thomas Eversberg (fg-spek-convento@vds-astro.de)
To: fg-spek-convento@vds-astro.de (fg-spek-convento@vds-astro.de)
Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2013 7:34 AM
Subject: [fg-spek] Re: Teide 2013 WR campaign



Hi ConVento members!

I got a preliminary data statistics for WR 134 from Noel (attached) which covers Teide (black) and Mont Megantic (red) observations. It is the number of spectra (30 minutes each) against Julian date. We obviously have been lucky during our mechanical problems at Teide because OMM covered it pretty well. Note that all other amateur observations are not yet included.

Noel also checked the most recent data and confirmed the result from Martin about their very good quality (excellent job by team 7). I now see no reason to expect a reduced data number and quality during the final period at Teide. When running without major time gaps we even can compensate for our one week stop.

Cherio, Thomas

Hi Robin! I know that you deliver data but I could not find them on the server and Noel is obviously still waiting for some. So, please upload them asap. According to the time after the main campaign period I do not know what targets are preferred by the Montreal team. It might depend on the respective time coverage and the rotational and perhaps clumping period. I would focus on the periodical CIR features but suggest you directly ask Noel about that.

Cheers, Thomas

Hi all,

We just received notice that we will have an additional 10 nights at the Observatoire de Mont Megantic in Quebec from the 21-30 September, thus extending the campaign by about two weeks beyond our allocations at Teide. We strongly welcome/encourage all amateurs to continue the monitoring efforts through the end of September!

Cheers,

Noel

Hi Wind-Gang,

Teide is back after some days with clouds.

Meanwhile Daniel and Ted left the mountain and Heidi and Thomas took over. The transfer night was completely clouded, so the trail run was more or less a dry run But Daniel and Ted did a very good job transfering all the procedures to us. Thanx again to both.

Based on that and with the help of a very friendly night assistance we did two WR-runs last night. The data are already transfered. Feedback on data quality would be of high interest for us.

We lost 2 of 20 single WR spectra by the known readout problem. Apart from that the setup including the telescope is working fine.

Cheerio,
Heidi and Thomas

Hallo Thomas and Heidi,

I looked at the latest spectra from Aug. 23. Everything looks fine, the usual bad 10% of shifted spectra from the sample I have seen. The rest looks very good, only a small shift of a few pixel since Aug. 11, no problem for the software. Below some examples. Instrument response corrected with zet Aql, but no correction for atmospheric transmission. As usual, the actual spectra and the configuration for processing in ISIS I will upload on the server in the folder 20130823.
Hope you have good weather and can produce more spectra like this.

Regards, Martin

Hi Martin,

Thanks for your quick response. The results are promising. I think we will be able to increase the SNR a little bit by better guiding.

Weather forecast for the next days: sun at day and stars at night

Regards,
Thomas

Nice spectra indeed! Fine work from Heidi,Martin and Thomas.

Have a nice time at the observatory ...

Cheers
Berthold

Short progress report from Teide: last night with new spectra of WR stars (8x3) & standards, no serious problems with setup, perfect support by telescope operator
Additional target: Nova Del (located between WR's and beta Aql), we spent 45min observation time to find exposure time and set single series, 60s are enough to be close to saturation for Halpha excess(!), Martin Dubs will kindly reduce data
I think this is a good chance to support our French friends
If no one of our campaign disagrees we go on with this additional target.
Today's weather will be extremely good because we haven't dust anylonger (yesterday we recognized a certain dust layer at the height of Teide's summit)

Regards,
Thomas & Heidi

Hi
We (Team 7) also have done some observations of Nova Del. They can be used also.
Daniel Am 26.08.2013 19:31 schrieb "Thomas Hunger" <fg-spek-convento@vds-astro.de (fg-spek-convento@vds-astro.de)>:

_________________
Daniel P. Sablowski

https://www.kunstmann.de/buch/axel_hack ... 42000/t-2/
https://dpsablowski.wordpress.com
https://github.com/DPSablowski
https://www.aip.de/mitglieder/dsablowski/

Hi Thomas and Heidi,

glad to hear now those statements!


Plaese couldt you write the position of this Nova here? Perhaps I'll find time tomorrow to reduce the novaspectrum. I did not use the eshelreduction mode of isis for a longer time, becaucse I used it to reduce my lhires spectra. So I have to look from the beginning how to use eShel mode of isis. But I think it could be rather easy concerning the newest *xml from Martin Dubs.

In the last few nights , I have taken WR134 at 5400 Angströms reagion. Please see the results.

cheers berthold

I am not opposed to the nova observations if we manage to continue getting three good observations of each WR star spread throughout the night. It is really bright, and certainly these would be useful. (I lost 1.5 nights observing WR stars at CHARA to nova observations). We need to keep the WR in priority, please, so any nova observations need to be more in the middle of the night, not at the beginning or end.

Cheers,

Noel

An Eshel spectrum of Nova Del 2013 could be very useful tonight as it seems many observers in France may be clouded out which risks a break in our continuous amateur coverage at high resolution. (I will hopefully observe with my LHIRES tonight but I cannot cover all wavelengths. Spectra to date (over 300) can be found here.
http://www.astrosurf.com/aras/Aras_Data ... l-2013.htm
and this thread can be monitored to see what observations are currently being made in ~real time
http://www.spectro-aras.com/forum/viewt ... 683&p=2806
Spectra can be sent to Francois Teyssier.

Cheers
Robin

----- Original Message ----- From: Noel Richardson (fg-spek-convento@vds-astro.de)
To: fg-spek-convento@vds-astro.de (fg-spek-convento@vds-astro.de)
Sent: Monday, August 26, 2013 7:14 PM
Subject: [fg-spek] Re: Teide 2013 WR campaign



I am not opposed to the nova observations if we manage to continue getting three good observations of each WR star spread throughout the night. It is really bright, and certainly these would be useful. (I lost 1.5 nights observing WR stars at CHARA to nova observations). We need to keep the WR in priority, please, so any nova observations need to be more in the middle of the night, not at the beginning or end.

Cheers,

Noel

Hello everybody,

as already announced, here are the some spectra from last night. I checked the WR spectra and also the spectrum from Nova Del 2013. As usual I upload the spectra on the Montreal server for those interested in the details.
Here only two examples:
A comparison with a lower resolution spectrum of Jim Edlin shows that the many lines in the Nova spectrum are not noise but real. Remarkable is the fast evolution of the H-alpha emission during the last days, it is easily overexposed if one does not pay attentiion.

With the bad weather over much of Europe, these spectra from IAC80 are very valuable.
Keep going, Thomas,

Regards, Martin

I second that, i.e. keep observing the 3 WR stars well spread out in time each (clear) night, fitting the nova in somewhere in the middle.

I should also add that the Canadian MOST satellite has been observing the nova continuously since Aug 18 and will do so until Sept 2.

Tony

From: Noel Richardson (fg-spek-convento@vds-astro.de)
Sent: Monday, August 26, 2013 2:14 PM
To: fg-spek-convento@vds-astro.de (fg-spek-convento@vds-astro.de)
Subject: [fg-spek] Re: Teide 2013 WR campaign




I am not opposed to the nova observations if we manage to continue getting three good observations of each WR star spread throughout the night. It is really bright, and certainly these would be useful. (I lost 1.5 nights observing WR stars at CHARA to nova observations). We need to keep the WR in priority, please, so any nova observations need to be more in the middle of the night, not at the beginning or end.

Cheers,

Noel

_________________
Tony Moffat

Agreed Tony, and just to also add: CHARA has been doing interferometry of the nova, and the results seem to suggest that it will be very interesting. But, everything is very preliminary so we can't say much about the geometry of the system yet.

Hi together,

Thanks for the valueable input. Yesterday's (no "yesternight") sequence was:
WR135
WR137
WR134
WR137
WR134
WR135
BetAqr
NovDel
ZetaAql
WR134
WR135

Today planned (w/ shift of Nova observation)
WR137
WR135
WR134
NovDel
WR135
WR134
WR137
BetAqr
ZetaAql
WR134
WR137

Regards,
Thomas

Hi Thomas:

Looks basically fine. However, I do note that in the first sequence below, WR137 was only observed twice (compared to WR135 and WR134 being observed 3 times), and even then with a rather short interval between successive observations (making it little better than one single observation) Then in the second sequence, it was WR135 that was only observed twice, again with a relatively small gap between observations.

I therefore would recommend cutting all exposures just a little shorter (about 10%, or perhaps keeping them the same and observing into both twilights a bit more?) in order to get 3 observations of each WR star per night. Also, it would be better to keep the same order during a night, e.g. WR134, WR135, WR137, then 134, 135, 137 and 134, 135, 137. One can start with a different star and vary the triple sequence, but still respecting the equal spacing. If you mix them up a bit during a night (as is being done, apparently) e.g. 134, 135, 137; 135, 137, 134; 137, 135, 134 ? then in this particular case 137 is spread over a much shorter time base than the other two stars, also with shorter gaps. Ideally we need the data for each star as uniformly spread over the whole night as possible.

Thanks!

Tony

From: Thomas Hunger (fg-spek-convento@vds-astro.de)
Sent: Monday, August 26, 2013 4:17 PM
To: fg-spek-convento@vds-astro.de (fg-spek-convento@vds-astro.de)
Subject: [fg-spek] Re: Teide 2013 WR campaign




Hi together,

Thanks for the valueable input. Yesterday's (no "yesternight") sequence was:
WR135
WR137
WR134
WR137
WR134
WR135
BetAqr
NovDel
ZetaAql
WR134
WR135

Today planned (w/ shift of Nova observation)
WR137
WR135
WR134
NovDel
WR135
WR134
WR137
BetAqr
ZetaAql
WR134
WR137

Regards,
Thomas

_________________
Tony Moffat

Hi Tony,

Good to know - not clear to me up to now! We spent effort in rearranging the WR sequence in a certain random manner - exactly opposite to what is needed. We immediately go over to a rolling sequence.

Another "problem" or even a fact: early culmination of WR in late summer. Attached you find the current visibiliy chart. WR ends for IAC80 at around 3:30 UT due to increased safety margin of telescope limit. Twilight is not an option. In fact, it will be hard (may be impossible) to get three spectra of each WR.

By the way, we have increased readout problems this night with really corrupt images (not the shift problem), lost 2 spectra so far...

Regards,
Thomas

Hello Team,

Update from IAC80:

Yesterday's observation:
WR137, WR135, WR134, NovDel, WR137, WR135, WR134, BetAqr, ZetaAql,
WR137, WR135

Loss of two object spectra due to corrupted images. What is meant is attached. Don't be confussed, I like inverted images because I have the feeling to recognize readout failures easier (especially for ThAr)

Regards,
Thomas

Those "corrupted" images are ok, and will be easy to fix with software we have at UdeM.

Cheers,

Noel

Good to know! So far we simply scrapped it...
Cheers,
Thomas & Heidi

Attention Teide observers:

After some discussions about what we should do after the campaign stars set for the night, we decided we would try to get spectra of WR 1 (RA 00 43 28.4 DEC +64 45 35.4) should be the final target, but it is about 10th mag instead of 8th. With the magnitude difference, I expect that we should be able to get at least a S/N of 100 per A with the instrument there during the time after 3:30 currently. It is similar to WR 134 in that it shows CIRs (co-rotating interaction regions), but with a longer ~16 d period. We will get one cycle at Teide (get as many 600s exposures to co-add as possible after ~3:30 UT) and we will bin each night's data into one spectrum. We will continue on this target at OMM here in Quebec during our ~10 night run after the conclusion of the Teide run to cover two cycles. The CIRs have been observed twice and showed different patterns each time. These observations will probably show another pattern and will hopefully give us some new insights to this system.

This is a more difficult target, but we are hoping for the best!

Cheers,

Noel

Hi Noel

let's see. The star is already on the fiber.

Cheers,
Thomas & Heidi

Today's sequence so far:
WR134,35,37
NovDel
WR134,35,37
BetAqr
WR134
ZetAql
WR135,37

Didn't upload so far

Add-on: tough star, indeed, max ADU ~3400 over background level ~2200
but thanks to FOVIA it is well placed over fiber entry

Hi Thomas,

here the latest results, including WR1! The FITS files can be found on the Montreal server.
Now I will take a break for a few days. More next week.

Cheers, Martin

I briefly looked at the WR 1 data this morning, and I am highly encouraged by them. I know it was a difficult one at Teide, but it seems worthwhile. We got a S/N or ~80 when the spectrum was rebinned to 0.75A dispersion, in only 2 600 sec exposures! Great job to the Teide team!

Cheers,

Noel

Hello again Thomas:

That?s a better cyclical ordering of the stars ? thanks! However, I did notice that WR134 was only observed twice, compared to three times each for WR135 and WR137. As I mentioned before, could one not correct this (i.e. always observe all three stars 3 times each on every clear night) by trimming a small bit off the exposures of each star, to guarantee getting these 3 spectra per star? If one gets S/N = 210 or 190 per spectrum is of no real consequence.

Best regards, Tony

From: Thomas Hunger (fg-spek-convento@vds-astro.de)
Sent: Tuesday, August 27, 2013 12:25 PM
To: fg-spek-convento@vds-astro.de (fg-spek-convento@vds-astro.de)
Subject: [fg-spek] Re: Teide 2013 WR campaign




Hello Team,

Update from IAC80:

Yesterday's observation:
WR137, WR135, WR134, NovDel, WR137, WR135, WR134, BetAqr, ZetaAql,
WR137, WR135

Loss of two object spectra due to corrupted images. What is meant is attached. Don't be confussed, I like inverted images because I have the feeling to recognize readout failures easier (especially for ThAr)

Regards,
Thomas

_________________
Tony Moffat

Hi Tony,

Last night we proceeded according to your desires. Need only to start a bit earlier at each evening and we have sufficient time. Reducing exposure time is the 2nd step as long as we are able to go on in current way (might be different next week, didn't check the visibility charts). Hope you agree.

Regards,
Thomas

Sounds just right!

Tony

From: Thomas Hunger (fg-spek-convento@vds-astro.de)
Sent: Wednesday, August 28, 2013 1:00 PM
To: fg-spek-convento@vds-astro.de (fg-spek-convento@vds-astro.de)
Subject: [fg-spek] Re: Teide 2013 WR campaign




Tony Moffat hat Folgendes geschrieben: ...always observe all three stars 3 times each on every clear night...

Hi Tony,

Last night we proceeded according to your desires. Need only to start a bit earlier at each evening and we have sufficient time. Reducing exposure time is the 2nd step as long as we are able to go on in current way (might be different next week, didn't check the visibility charts). Hope you agree.

Regards,
Thomas

_________________
Tony Moffat

Short progress report from IAC80

1st WR run w/ defocussed telescope, lost ~half of photons on fiber, reason was unclear, trying other foci made it even worse

Problem description: star looked like a bar (not round), FOVIA also showed strange images (best focus: broad star with cenral depression - may be by the secondary)

Tried to improve while discussing w/ operator by playing at focus after 1st run - no real progress, decided to make a sky move:
Miracle happened: stars looks like stars, in FOVIA too!

Too late for Nova Del but photons were back

Beta Aqr
2nd run WR
zeta Aql
3rd run WR

Dome error, needed restart of telescope twice
lost WR137 because out of scope range

Continued w/ WR1, got 10 spectra

Thomas & Heidi

Well done, team 8!

A cool error search and some tests often do the job. This is real business and not getting nerveous is important. As well as good operator support, as we have. 10 spectra of WR 1! Perfect!

Cheers, Thomas

Hi all!

Yesterday our last Teide team (Eva Santos and Filipe Dias) arrived at the summit to finalize our IAC80 run. The telescope is running smoothly without any problem, the guiding unit operates well and our night assistants do an excellent job as for our whole run. Nevertheless, I ask all support observers to continue with their backyard observations of our prime targets WR 134, 135 and 137. I know, the Nova Del is exciting and many want to contribute to this campaign, too. But for our campaign the WRs have priority. Do not neglect them!

Cheers, Thomas

Last status report of Team 8 from Teide

We are transfering the procedure to Eva & Fil. The light-machine runs fine.

We finally observed 12 consecutive nights and of course produced a lot of spectra. So we are convinced to have the campaign successfully supported.

Thanks also to the suberb support of the local IAC team here. We enjoyed the stay at IAC80 very much.

Thomas & Heidi

Tony, Thomas, Noel:

Tomorrow afternoon I should get the RA assembly for the AP1200 mount I use on the telescope that has the LHiRes. Looking at the sunset time and the time that the targets will pass behind the large maple tree in my back yard, I should have right around four hours. So, should I try just to get one good high S/N set (say three 60-minute integrations), try to get two full sets (30 minutes exposure on each target and two visits)? I've been taking 30-minute exposures and getting S/N in the 160s or so in the continuum. And should I even try WR1>

It will be nice getting back on-line, and it is supposed to be clear tomorrow night.

Thanks!
Mike Potter

I'd say if you get 4 hours, and can get a S/N of 160 in 30 min, do 2 sets of observations (maybe 40 min each if you want some extra S/N).

Glad you are back on-line. As for WR1, it is a difficult target. If you are up to the challenge, then give it a go. But it is faint (between 10 and 11), so we don't expect many amateurs will be able to get it at high S/N.

Clear skies,

Noel

Hi there!

Team #9 is now at the controls of the PCs at IAC 80
Data from last night (Sept 4) is on Montreal.
This was our first night, the transition one, so we went through it slowly. As a result we opted not to do the Nova Del. At the time of doing the last WR sequence of the night, the telescope was getting close to the limit, so that was not done as well, and we finished the night with WR1
The readout errors payed a visit once in a while.. but all ThAr calibration images were checked so that they did not have it.

Right now, the camera is going through the "flats and darks" part of the preparation for tonight. We estimate to start acquiring spectra after around 21:30.. This is not the best of timings, due to an unexpected need to find a pharmacy in La Laguna (everything is fine), but we are getting the hang of it
As a result of this, the most darks will not be taken "before" the night's spectra but "after" it. (I hope there is no problem with this, but it is the way we can start observing "in time")

The transition night ran smoothly and in excellent mood! Thank you to Thomas Hunger and Heidi (team #8) and Lara Monteagudo (operator). We have not had dinner yet, because we want to share it with some WR stars in 3x600s intervals

_________________
Fil.

Hi Teide teams and all external members of our WR campaign 2013.

Our Teide run is finished. Eva and Fil (team 9) just finished packing our equipment into the suitcase. The box will be brought to IAC in La Laguna and then by Johan Knapen to Schipol Airport in Amsterdam in September 23. I will then pick it up there and bring it back to Berthold Stober. There are some minor but no major damages. This will be covered by some funds from Montreal.

I do not like big words about specific achievements because it is the success of the entire team. Anyway, I now thank everybody for making this task possible. I actually do not need to take somebody into special consideration but want to address two groups: These are our excellent youngsters (scholars and students) as well as our brilliant night assistants and the stuff at IAC. They deserve our deep respect.

It was a pleasure working with you all. Chapeau!

Now it is up to Noel to give some statistics about our run (including world contributions) and then Emily Aldoretta in Montreal to check our data, reduce them and hopefully deliver some nice results. I guess, she will keep us informed about her progress. In case she becomes Nobel laureate she has to invite us all to Stockholm, of course (Tack so mycke!).

I already spoke with our Montreal PIs about a later wrap-up meeting in, say, about two years. Nicole had a certain preference for Paris (no wonder) where our WR stars have been discovered. I guess we will discuss this together with our world-wide partners next year.

Did I forget something? Hope not!

Cheers, Thomas

Hi all:

here are some results. To observe continuously for 4 hours. The last hour's result shows more noise, as WR134 located near the west part of the sky which has much more water vapour and light pollution.

Cheers

2013-09-25:

there are some obvious changes.

data of 20130926 of WR134.

TIME: 2 hours continuously; a little wind

data of 2013-09-28 of WR134

TIME: 3 hours continuously

Dear all,

many many months have passed.

Are there any results (refereed papers) from the campaign?

Best regards,
Daniel

_________________
Daniel P. Sablowski

https://www.kunstmann.de/buch/axel_hack ... 42000/t-2/
https://dpsablowski.wordpress.com
https://github.com/DPSablowski
https://www.aip.de/mitglieder/dsablowski/