Short observing session

I slept early and set the alarm just after midnight and finally got some clear night... well, at the begining!

First a calibration star hd173648 (airmass 1.2; elevation 56°).

Good results on the calibration (I slightly changed my focus from previous sessions) :
Ordre #31 :  FWHM = 4.31  -  Dispersion = .195 A/pixel  -  R = 8605.3
Ordre #32 :  FWHM = 3.94  -  Dispersion = .188 A/pixel  -  R = 9481.3
Ordre #33 :  FWHM = 3.68  -  Dispersion = .185 A/pixel  -  R = 9981.2
Ordre #34 :  FWHM = 3.52  -  Dispersion = .180 A/pixel  -  R = 10422.7
Ordre #35 :  FWHM = 3.49  -  Dispersion = .175 A/pixel  -  R = 10530.4
Ordre #36 :  FWHM = 3.18  -  Dispersion = .169 A/pixel  -  R = 11587.2
Ordre #37 :  FWHM = 3.38  -  Dispersion = .164 A/pixel  -  R = 10988.6
Ordre #38 :  FWHM = 3.35  -  Dispersion = .160 A/pixel  -  R = 10992.9
Ordre #39 :  FWHM = 3.18  -  Dispersion = .158 A/pixel  -  R = 11444.1
Ordre #40 :  FWHM = 3.41  -  Dispersion = .153 A/pixel  -  R = 10764.6
Ordre #41 :  FWHM = 3.50  -  Dispersion = .148 A/pixel  -  R = 10557.6
Ordre #42 :  FWHM = 3.67  -  Dispersion = .145 A/pixel  -  R = 10011.2
Ordre #43 :  FWHM = 3.17  -  Dispersion = .145 A/pixel  -  R = 11325.5
Ordre #44 :  FWHM = 3.34  -  Dispersion = .140 A/pixel  -  R = 10921.9
Ordre #45 :  FWHM = 3.34  -  Dispersion = .136 A/pixel  -  R = 11009.6
Ordre #46 :  FWHM = 3.40  -  Dispersion = .133 A/pixel  -  R = 10751.2
Ordre #47 :  FWHM = 3.24  -  Dispersion = .129 A/pixel  -  R = 11454.3
Ordre #48 :  FWHM = 3.26  -  Dispersion = .126 A/pixel  -  R = 11359.8
Ordre #49 :  FWHM = 3.60  -  Dispersion = .125 A/pixel  -  R = 10157.6
Ordre #50 :  FWHM = 3.84  -  Dispersion = .123 A/pixel  -  R = 9531.4
Ordre #51 :  FWHM = 4.21  -  Dispersion = .115 A/pixel  -  R = 9063.9
Ordre #52 :  FWHM = 4.86  -  Dispersion = .115 A/pixel  -  R = 7739.0
Ordre #53 :  FWHM = 5.36  -  Dispersion = .113 A/pixel  -  R = 7012.1


Then beta Lyrae for a quick run.

CH Cygni after, but clouds are coming and with the bad seeing of the night, I am loosing lot of flux.

A run on P Cygni (great target) and ups Cyg (Be star) before going to my main target: VV Cep.

Here is a quick profile for 3x2min exposures on VV Cep while other acquisition are progressing:

May 21-22 at OHP - Pulsating Stars workshop

On may 21st (my 50th birthday!) and may 22nd, a french workshop with around 20 participants was organized at Observatory of Haute Provence. Subject was pulsating stars, with a focus on RR Lyrae and technics such as photometry and spectroscopy.

I traveled with Olivier Garde and as pleased to meet again lot of friends sharing the same passion about Astronomy!

Group Picture (T. de France)

Part of the workshop was on design of spectrograph, including fiber fed technics, image slicers, echelle spectroscopy, how to reach R=50000 for large telescopes, etc... Jean-Sebastien Devaux presented SARDINE R~10000 spectrograph and Pierre Valvin the design of echelle spectrograph and the search for higher resolution with R~50000. Olivier Garde showed first result of his echelle R~30000 spectrograph.

Another part was about results achieved so far with a great talk by our moroccan friends Benhida & Sefyani showing the results with their echelle spectrograph and new mount at the Oukaimeden observatory, specifically 40 observing sessions on RR Lyrae.

Benjamin Mauclaire showed also the results of the pro/am campaign on RR Lyrae, showing Halpha emission at phase ~0.91 but also third red shifted Halpha emission at phase ~0.30.

HeI 5875 emission has been clearly observed around phase ~0.91. He I 6678 has also been observed at the same time. There has been discussion if He II 4686 emission around phase ~0.91 was also visible or not - it was not obvious but could be suspected!


I recorded some talks in video - not high quality and some bugs during recording with Open Broadcaster; but it could interest some people and it should be made available through the Pulsating Stars web site:
http://www.pulsating-stars.org/

More information on openware SARDINE spectrograph(s) can be found on the following web site:
http://open-astronomy.org/sardine/


Here are the slidesets in PDF format that you can download (45MB total):
http://thizy.free.fr/Slides/20160521a_Spectrographe-Sardine_Devaux.pdf
http://thizy.free.fr/Slides/20160521b_ConceptionEchelle_Valvin.pdf
http://thizy.free.fr/Slides/20160521c_ESP_Garde.pdf
http://thizy.free.fr/Slides/20160522a_Bilan-campagne-spectrophotometrie_Benhida&DeFrance.pdf
http://thizy.free.fr/Slides/20160522b_Spectroscopie-RRLyr-Maroc_Sefyani&Benhida.pdf
http://thizy.free.fr/Slides/20160522c_Resultats-RRLyr_Mauclaire.pdf
http://thizy.free.fr/Slides/20160522d_Interpretations-of-the-Blazhko-effect_Gillet.pdf
http://thizy.free.fr/Slides/20160522e_Introduction_Polarimetrie_Matthias.pdf

Anyway, it was a great week-end and I was excited to be at this great OHP observatory again, looking for future time there! :-)