Camarillo Observatory - Founded 1992
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Camarillo Observatory - Founded 1992
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Ideally, we strive to get at least three observations of each target over a period of about four hours. This is particularly beneficial when the target is near the earth, and we can take advantage of the parallax, created by the rotation of the earth about its axis. This allows the orbit computer to better determine the distance of the target from the earth. The first attempt occurs when the target is two hours away from the meridian in the eastern sky. The second attempt is when the target is near the meridian and the final attempt is when the target is two hours west of the meridian. Of course, the ideal separation cannot always be attained, especially when many targets are located close together around the opposition part of the sky (opposite the sun), or if the target is already west of the meridian when the observing session is initiated. The same is true for targets in the eastern sky when the sun rises. Under these circumstances it may be only possible to get a pair of observations separated by a few minutes of time. One very important responsibility of the night assistant is to keep the telescope navigation system up to date. The night assistant will identify star patterns in the image and compare them with a star catalog containing millions of star positions. A match is found and the telescope computer is "synced", keeping the telescope pointing error to a fraction of an arc minute, throughout the night. If a situation occurs that the night assistant cannot resolve, then the observer is awakened via telephone. This is a feature that one's spouse does not particularly care for, but has saved several observing sessions from being totally lost. Fortunately, as the system developed and the night assistant was "trained" to handle more conflicts, the phone does not ring in the middle of the night as often. |
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The
night assistant is a computer program running on the warm-room processor.
The night assistant continually evaluates the system status, including weather
assessment, and schedules the targets to be observed. This includes
computing when the target will be on the local meridian (overhead), and
subsequently schedules all telescope moves and image acquisition commands.