Blog
Earth’s Atmosphere
A severely limiting obstacle, the Earth's atmosphere must be well understood and carefully considered when working in the field of astronomical imaging and science.
Planning Your Image – Non-Moving Object
This lesson guides the viewer through the process of preparing for an imaging run for an unmoving object in the night sky.
AAVSO Areas of Interest
The American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) serves as a dedicated research and outreach organization that allows both professionals and amateurs contribute to the vast and dynamic field of variable star research in countless unique ways.
Understanding the 6th Orbital Catalog
The 6th orbital catalog serves as a hub for proposed orbital solutions, while the published Sixth Catalog contains only orbits of the highest grade.
Flow of A Photometry Project
This lesson discusses the basic outline and design of a photometry project from identification of an object to the final stages of measurement and analysis.
Calculating Magnitude
This lesson explains how to utilize aperture photometry to calculate the magnitude of a given object.
APASS
The AAVSO Photometric All-Sky Survey (APASS) is a key all-sky survey that helps various research programs measure, adjust, and standardize their photometric systems.
Point Spread Function (PSF)
Point Spread Function (PSF) uses known optical behaviors of both stellar light and the imaging system to decrease the complexity of images and create visual separation between objects for more accurate study.
Aperture Photometry
Aperture Photometry, key to all studies in photometry, is one of the two most common methods of measuring the flux output of a star and is the most accurate when used with non-crowded images.
Photometry an Overview
The science of photometry is the measurement of the changes in flux of objects, and it's a crucial component of researching variable stars.
Group Extrinsic
The extrinsic classification refers to eclipsing, rotating, and microlensing variable stars, all of which have flux variations as a result of external stellar factors.
Variable Stars and Collaboration with the AAVSO
An international non-profit encompassing both amateur and professional astronomers, the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) provides assistance with stellar activity monitoring, statistical analysis, and many more key components of astronomical research.
SLOAN ugriz Filters
One of the two standardized filter sets used for BRIEF projects, SLOAN ugriz is widely used due to its distinct, low-overlap response curves and generally flexible and efficient nature.
Linearity and Saturation
As inherent consequences of the design of CCD photon collection, pixel saturation and non-linearity are common challenges that must be carefully managed for effective scientific imaging.
Imaging Basics
This video serves as a best practices checklist for night sky imaging and outlines both the basic and more advanced methods involved with astronomical imaging.
Full Width Half Maximum
Used to determine the quality of your image, the Full Width Half Maximum (FWHM) process is used to determine the quality of images and is of particular importance in photometric and exoplanet research work. BRIEF primarily uses the OSS Pipeline to account for the FWHM process.
Camera Overview
Charged Coupled Devices (CCDs) are an integral part of astronomical imaging that utilize a matrix of electronically-measured photon counts to accurately represent an image.
Calculating Besselian Epoch
This lesson will show how to convert image dates to Besselian, which is the recognized standard for Double Star research.
What is Time: BJD
Barycentric Julian Day (BJD) time is the universal day and time at the center of the solar system and is crucial to many astronomically-relevant processes as well as other time scales.
What is an Ephemeris
A highly useful concept for applications in both Double and Variable Stars, an Ephemeris is an estimation of where/when a particular astronomical event will occur at a particular time in the future.