Asteroids project


Update 2023-09-20:

A seating bench "Astronomy" has been designed and perfectly manufactured by Stefan. Thank you Stefan!


Update 2022-04-24:

An astro camera SV305M Pro has been tested on the Omegon Pro Astrograph 254/1016 telescope. A comparison with the Stellarium program suggests that stars can be detected upto the mag 17 to mag 18 range.


Update 2021-12-31:

The previously proposed astronomical equipment has been tested with a Sony Alpha 6000 camera.

Please find below an image that shows stars in the Pleiades that point to a minimal magnitude of mag 15.55 which can be observed with used equipment. This is just a first shot which can certainly be improved when using a special astronomy camera that can be cooled down below ambient temperature to further reduce the noise in the image.


Update 2021-04-05:

The project focuses on refining the ephemerides of asteroids (also called minor planets). The following recommendations may help to find the right equipment for those who also want to contribute to that task.

MOUNT

Most important is a stable mount that let a telescope smoothly automatically follow the star movement on sky. The Skywatcher Mount EQ6-R Pro SynScan GoTo is capable of moving telescopes of upto 20 kg:

TELESCOPE

The observation of asteroids requires a telescope with high aperture and high focal ratio in order to collect as much as possible light from faintest objects in the sky. The Omegon Teleskop Pro Astrograph 254/1016 OTA offers an aperture of 254 mm and a focal ratio of f/4. Going below those parameters is not recommended for observing asteroids. Otherwise, better parameters would be desirable but will increase costs considerably.

EYEPIECE

A star alignment of the telescope before astronomical observations demands for an ocular with a not too small focal length in order to have alignment stars inside the telescope's field of view. Using an EXPLORE SCIENTIFIC 70° Okular 30mm (2") eyepiece results in about a 2° field of view which allows for aligning the telescope's pointing position conveniently in most situations.

ASTRO CAMERA

The camera will be mounted on the telescope in order to take digital images. A mono camera with large pixels and a high quantum efficiency with low noise is desirable. To reduce noise, astro cameras can usually be cooled down to about 40 degree below ambient temperature like the ALccd-QHY Camera 174 cool Mono:

TELESCOPE and MOUNT combined system

The total cost of a complete telescope system with a digital camera can be reduced to about 3700 € (January 2022) when going for a combined system Omegon Teleskop Pro Astrograph 254/1016 EQ6-R Pro.

Above components should serve as a guideline for a suitable equipment that is capable of detecting a major part of asteroids and to determine their positions in order to estimate their ephemerides.

The information will hopefully be helpful to find a starting point for selecting the right equipment for the asteroids survey.


Started: 1997 by Eckhard Kantz