CCD/DSLR observations start

Dear colleagues,
We’re happy to present a CCD observations module, we’ve been working on since April.

This module allows an observer to submit his CCD and DSLR observations both. As these types of observations have differences they’re marked in the final report as “CCD” and “DSLR” respectively.

The easiest way to submit the observer his CCD (DSLR) observations is to upload them in icq with just one click. A special web form is suggested to use where all observations can be pasted and saved.

In case if observer doesn’t have his observations stored in icq we’d like to introduce another special web form to fill. Besides a fields used in icq format we suggest the observer to describe some circumstances and features of his own observations, adding a particular location and night sky’s brightness and light pollution (Bortl scale, Light pollution scale, SQM, limiting magnitude).

As we mentioned before the list of cameras are poorly presented in icq list. That’s why each observer has the opportunity to create a camera he uses (in case if it’s missing in the Cameras Main Source) or simply choose it from the list of cameras called Main Source that was defined by admins and generally reflecting the icq list. In case if an observer has to introduce a new camera a few fields are required: title, pixel size and pixel array (if the camera has no icq code, of course, one should skip this field).

Some observers use a special software for the photometry analysis. If it’s not defined in the list then can be introduced manually.

As in case of visual observations each observer can choose comets, tools and location from a personal list, which is the same as for visual observations. In summary we may conclude:

1. CometBase gives each observer a great advantage of submitting the whole range of his CCD/DSLR observations regardless of the cameras/software icq list correspondence. We tried to go beyond any lists and give the user some freedom of creating his own observation world, where everything is at hand;

2. Each observer takes part in the creation of the whole database, as the data he entered fill the general database. This is not only the observations but the cameras and software also.

And finally, important… If someone’s having problems submitting observations or simply doesn’t have time to do it, he can always contact us for a help.

Best regards and clear skies,
CometBase team
Artyom Novichonok, Kirill Grishin, Taras Prystavski