Monthly Archives: May 2013
An aperture photometry test using MaxIM DL and UCAC3
Non photometric catalogues are notoriously unreliable, but are increasingly used by novices amateur astronomers using commercial software such as TheSky and MaxIM DL. The following basic magnitude ‘measurement’ test shows results using MaxIM DL’s photometry tool, unfiltered images of a random field of stars, … Continue reading
Thackery’s Globules and the Running Chicken Nebula
The Running Chicken – a rich emission nebula illuminated by a cluster of massive stars. It contains Thackery’s Globules (see inset) – dark clouds of dark cosmic dust often associated with star forming regions. Image acquired at D21 on May … Continue reading
Testing the linearity of the KAF-16803 CCD sensor
Testing the linearity of the KAF-16803 sensor (the anti-blooming version of Kodak’s KAF-16801) seems to reveal a workable photometric range of up to 50% of the sensor’s full well capacity and a ‘comfortable’ upper limit of 40,000 ADU.