Log Book -- Submit Your Observations!

What is a logbook? It's basically a journal in which you keep details about your observations. Here, it's the page where you can submit your images.

For the most part, the AOP/CACAO is collecting images, animations, sketches, and written reports on a number of small bodies in order to share with other amateurs. We make no claims about using any of the files we collect for scientific purposes. And we cannot promise to archive (as in archive with PDS-SBN) any of the files (although that is our long-term dream!). However, we will try to maintain this site as long as we possibly can. (It's already over 10 years old!)

And yet, we really would like to get some scientifically useful (CCD) data that can be used by the professional observers and properly archived. We will look at submitted files and contact individuals. To be considered, the first step is to do proper calibrations of the data. And to let us know whether you want us to consider your submission as simply a pretty picture or as scientific data.

We are now accepting submissions of any currently visible comets and asteroids, but are particularly interested in observations of 46P/Wirtanen. And even if you didn't know about our past campaigns at the time, we will still accept submissions of comets 103P/Hartley 2 and 9P/Tempel 1. And while there are no specific campaigns, we will accept files on other comets and the UMD asteroids, although posting non-campaign targets might take a little longer.

For asteroids, we would prefer images that show the motion of the asteroids in some way -- a sketch made over several nights, a single image of stacked frames showing the multiple positions, or an animation (preferable gif).

We will accept written reports, sketches, scanned emulsion, CCD/CMOS images. We will also accept lightcurves, spectra, or other unique observations. Finally, we will also accept calibrated data.
 

How to submit images

• compose an email to E. Warner
• in the body of the email, include as much information about the file as possible such as:
  • your name, email address
  • date/time(s) of observation/exposures used to make image(s) (be sure to specify UTC or time zone... if you do not know the UTC, you must specify your local time and your time zone!)
  • location where observations/exposures were made
  • what equipment such as telescopes, cameras, lenses, filters were used
  • exposure length, number of exposures
  • any digital post-processing (details!!)
  • if this is a CCD image, should we consider it as a pretty picture or as data?
  • any additional comments, descriptions,...
• attach your file (HINT: suggested file name YYYYMMDD_XXX where XXX is your initials or observatory code)
• make sure you include as much information as possible
• send the email!
• allow at least 24 hours for me to get the email, review it and post it
• submitting calibrated data collections: please email Elizabeth if you are interested in pursuing this option.

Hints

• The more information/details about the image(s) you include the better! Images submitted with little or no information will take longer to post.
• The target should be easily discernible. There should be some stars in the field of view to enable identification.
• For sketches covering multiple nights, use a simple label (like 1,2,3 or a,b,c...) to label the positions of the target.