Besides of my uploaded observations of the beat Cepheid star AS Cas, I also have interest in doing a live stream with either a short period pulsator, such as RR Lyr, or a fast binary eclipse for outreach purposes.
I do remember that some months ago, there was a way of making observations on real time with Astro Image J, if I remember well, and there was a video of an AAVSO webinar about it, but I simply cannot find it. Does anyone recall this webinar? Any information will be most appreciated.
I found the webinar! It was Gary Hawkinsā presentation on doing outreach with a live plot showing real-time photometry. Here you go:
I love your idea of doing an outreach livestream. If/when you decide to do it, please post a notice here in the forumsāIād love to tune in, and Iām sure other forum readers would, as well!
And you might try high-amplitude delta Scuti (HADS) stars. With periods down near a couple of hours or less you could catch a whole cycle in one outreach session.
Richard
Iāll definitely post an invitation to the live stream, once I figure out how to do it The idea is to do it with the equipment I am going to set up in the next couple of weeks in Starfront (close to Brady, TX), which I am going to be able to control remotely. The weather and the Bortle class there are much better than at my home. But, yes, the idea is to put this to work ASAP.
Again, thanks so much, Lauren. Youāre always of great help for everyone.
Just wanted to let you know that I was able to find a more user friendly software (Phoranso) to capture and do photometry in real time that is perfect for a live stream. I am making some final tests with this software and will anounce very soon a live stream session through my YouTube channel in the next few days. So, donāt change the channel then.
Meanwhile I leave you what I got, during a whole night last week:
Wow, Phoranso supports real-time photometry? Thatās excellent! Once you finish your tests, Iāll be very interested to hear about how you set it up.
When it comes time, would you please post the link to your livestream here in the forums? That could be a lot of fun!
Yes, it does. And it is pretty straight forward, butā¦ there is a small issue with the Live Mode that it creates out of the blue a master bias file and this disrupts the process. Tonny is woking on the issue already (or is going to pull my ears, and tell me what I am doing wrong). But yes, you can even show the capture in real time, which also helps to explain the aperture photometry technique during an outreach session.
Of course I will let yāall know beforehand when the live stream will take place. That is for sure.
Thanks for the advise! What I see, is that Phoranso does not have issues when the meridian flip occurs, which I believe AstroimageJ hasā¦ But, anyway, we have to keep all the suggestions open, just in case.
Iām curious. What issues does AstroimgeJ have with the meridian flip? The reason for the question is that, although I believe AIJ can do photometry in real time, Iāve never tried to do that. I process the AIJ data on the day after the images are captured.
Good question. If you watch Gary Hawkingsā part in the āHow to do variable star outreachā (minute ~16), he says that during live mode, AIJ āfalls apartā after the meridian flip. I must say that have not used AIJ (have it installed, but have not been patient enough to learn it so far). I regularly use VPhot and Phoranso for āday-to-dayā photometry.
AIJ can align either non-plate solved OR plate solved images. However, IF the non-plate-solved images were used in ālive modeā the flip would break the non-plate-solved alignment and the target would not be found after the flip.
However, I suspect IF the EAA images were plate solved in real time, before being aligned/measured by AIJ, the target would continue to be identified properly and would be measured properly after the flip.
I have not tried this AIJ real-time analysis myself but I suspect my observation is correct? Give it a try.
The idea is to do it with the equipment I am going to set up in the next couple of weeks in Starfront (close to Brady, TX), which I am going to be able to control remotely. The weather and the Bortle class there are much better than at my home. But, yes, the idea is to put this to work ASAP.
