Our observatory is a system (COSMOS) for bringing observational data about the universe together in one place and recording it. It gathers data on space weather, close approaches of comets and asteroids, variable stars, and more, and records it alongside images taken with a remote telescope.

Observer

Observations are submitted to the AAVSO (American Association of Variable Star Observers) under the Church’s name.

Our Telescope

We use T30, a remote telescope operated by iTelescope.Net (Siding Spring Observatory, Australia; 0.51 m aperture). Working over the internet, we photograph the skies of the Southern Hemisphere.

From Observation to Record

1. Choose a target star (starting with variable stars, whose brightness changes)
2. Take a series of exposures of the same star with the remote telescope
3. Calibrate the images and measure the difference in brightness against reference stars (comparison stars)
4. Estimate the uncertainty and report to the AAVSO under the Church’s name
5. Check the result against the light curve (a graph of changes in brightness) and keep following the same star
6. Compile the results into a record for each object at xmasfantasy.org

We are still putting each step of this process in place, one at a time.

Registered Objects

• Orion NebulaM 42 · HIIRA 05h 35m 16.8s / Dec −05° 23′ 15″
• RV PhoenicisV* RV Phe · RR*RA 23h 28m 31.5s / Dec −47° 27′ 13″
• 47 TucanaeNGC 104 · GlCRA 00h 24m 05.4s / Dec −72° 04′ 53″

Source: COSMOS public API (CC BY 4.0 (data), MIT (software) — COSMOS)

Tonight’s Sky