What do I do?

Michael Richmond
Sep 9, 2013

Contents

• Write software to analyze optical data
• Use the WIYN 0.9-m telescope
• Use the RIT Observatory
• Study variable stars and supernovae

Write software to analyze optical data

I've spent quite a bit of time writing software for various purposes, all dealing with optical astronomy.

• telescope control, scheduling, data analysis for the Berkeley Automatic Imaging Telescope (BAIT). This effort led to the Katzmann Automatic Imaging Telescope (KAIT) and, long after I left Berkeley, supported the very successful Lick Observatory Supernova Search.
  • The Berkeley Automatic Imaging Telescope
  • The XVista package of image processing tools
• data analysis pipelines to turn raw optical images into clean images, lists of objects, and calibrated magnitudes. I've helped several projects in this way:
  • Sloan Digital Sky Survey
  • The Amateur Sky Survey
  • Kiso Wide Field Camera (KWFC)
    • Kiso Galactic Plane survey
• analysis of repeated observations of objects in a single field, to characterize variability (or lack thereof)
  • Ensemble photometry code

Use the WIYN 0.9-m Telescope

One of the many, many telescopes at the Kitt Peak National Observatory is the WIYN 0.9-m. RIT is one of the members of a consortium of universities which operates this telescope; we have six nights each year. I travel with students to Kitt Peak to spend a week at the mountain, carrying out projects devised by the students.

In addition, I'm the Telescope Scientist for the WIYN 0.9-m, which means I'll be going there next month to commission a new instrument: the Half-Degree Imager, or HDI for short.

• NOAO page on the WIYN 0.9-m telescope
• Read more about the RIT's use of the WIYN 0.9-m telescope

Use the RIT Observatory

RIT has its own observatory, right here on campus. I'm the director of the observartory, so I spend quite a bit of time working there (I was there last night, for example). The skies in Rochester aren't very dark, and often covered by clouds -- but there are still quite a few objects which one can study with our 12-inch and 14-inch telescopes.

Note that we will have an Open House at the RIT Observatory this Friday, Sep 13. Check the Observatory web site for updates.

• RIT Observatory home page

Study variable stars and supernovae

I'm an observer, not a theorist, and my favorite variety of data is optical images. I enjoy watching objects that change in some way: either in brightness or position.

• supernovae
  • current measurements of SN 2013ej in M74
  • SN 2011fe in M101
• cataclysmic variables
  • WZ Sge in 2001
  • this summer's outburst of WZ Boo
  • The Center for Backyard Astrophysics (CBA)
• white dwarfs -- this was a fun little project that gave me a chance to learn about proper motions (and play with some very deep optical images from the Subaru Telescope)
  • Proper motions with Subaru I. Methods and a first sample in the Subaru Deep Field
  • Proper motions with Subaru II. A sample in the Subaru/XMM-Newton Deep Survey field

Copyright © Michael Richmond. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.