NEIAC Pro-AM Collaboration Talk

Patterson’s talk focussed on photometry and began with a survey of areas where photometry plays a major role: asteroids, supernovae, and variable stars. Up to about 1910–1920, the area was dominated by amateurs, the best of which were often hired by the universities. Post World War II, that changed, largely due to money as the US government poured money into all the physical sciences. Then in the 80s, things changed again with the advent of CCD cameras which had "astonishing" efficiencies of around 10% (compared to emulsions’ 0.1%). Cost kept them confined to government funding due to prices of order $100,000. Moving into the 90s, prices continued to drop until prices hit around $2,000 for a good, small scope. Combined with quality scopes, amateurs suddenly found themselves able to do research on par with that which professional had done for decades.

Also, with detector efficiencies hitting 90-98% efficiency which meant there was nothing more to be gained there—hence the push toward large scopes. Those, however, come with a high price tag both in terms of construction and maintenance. Consequently, during times of tight budgets, small and medium sized scopes had their budgets slashed to keep the large facilities running. So, at this point, especially for variable star observations, leadership has been ceded to the amateur community. The AAVSO is the preeminant organization in that area.

The Center for Backyard Astrophysics is primarily interested in cataclysmic variables (rather than eruptive variables or irregular variables). The dream is to have 24-hour coverage of particular objects of interest, but at present, there is no coverage west from California to Israel. Additionally, there is presently only a single observer on the east coast (in Connecticut) leaving the potential for a larger gap.

Targets vary from mag 10 (a few very bright objects) to mag 17 (or so). Generally, time series data with a resolution of about 1 minute is preferred, but up to about 5 minutes is acceptable. Cataclysmic variables can fluctuation on scales of a few minutes (although not all do), so the short periods are preferable. That puts more severe limits on aperture and CCD sensitivity.