From: "Stanford, Darryl" <stanfordd@smccd.edu>

Date: April 23, 2011 12:31:24 PM MDT

To: "Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com" <Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com>

Cc: "Stanford, Darryl" <stanfordd@smccd.edu>

Subject: Re: [Astro_IIDC] Re: Spectroscopy

Our college observatory has several windows machines and we are beginning to use Rspec in my observational labs and in public outreach.  At home, I have a MacBook Pro and will need to buy Parallels, in order to use Rspec with my Rainbow Optics diffraction grating.   It would be just nicer if Astro IIDC had that functionality.  That way, I would not have to buy Parallels.  I could live with barebones functionality, such as just image acquisition.  I could then use IRAF to reduce the data, but would rather not.  SPLAT, actually looks quite good, although I haven’t used it.  It is definitely more visually appealing than IRAF.   

Terrance and Milton,

Our observatory is using students, in a special projects class, to help take dozens of spectra of the eclipsing binary epsilon Aurigae, using an off-the-shelf Meade 8”, an SBIG SGS spectrograph and CCDSoft.  We have taken darks but have not needed to take flats in any of our spectra.  We are also beginning to make our own spectral catalog to use in my labs.   We are in an urban environment in San Mateo and find that light pollution is not a problem, even with the glow of San Francisco city lights 25 miles away and parking lot lights on campus.  The spectral quality has been sufficiently good, such that students have presented several posters at recent AAS meetings.   The point that I am making is that small telescopes can do amazing work in spectroscopy, as part of a community college curriculum.

Darryl

On 4/23/11 9:48 AM, "daffyddsant" <usenet@davidillig.com> wrote:

Silent other here. (Not really, as I was the one who started the thread on the macastronomer group.)

I know that you have access to Windows. I would suggest that you download RSpec (30-day fully-functional trial) and see what it does <http://www.rspec-astro.com/>. There is a very short overview video at <http://www.rspec-astro.com/videos/overview/overview.html>. Thee are sample files available. Among other things, it can rotate the star image and spectrum to horizontal. After rotating one can manipulate two horizontal bars to select the region of interest (the star and its spectrum) and eliminate as many other stars and spectra as possible. A very neat feature is its ability to accept live input from video cameras such as Imaging Source, webcams, etc, and average for best curve. This is also a focusing aid, as focusing on the star does not do the job; one has to somehow focus on the spectrum, but the spectrum has fuzzy edges. Thus, in RSpec, one focuse s for the best looking curve.

Good luck! Make it an extra-cost add on. Maybe if you build it they will come.

--- In Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com <mailto:Astro_IIDC%40yahoogroups.com> , Milton Aupperle <milton@...> wrote:

>

> Hi  Ralph, Darryl and silent others:

> 

> Thanks for the feedback....