CBA Minnesota
CBA Minnesota is that subset of the Center for Backyard Astrophysics which contributes observations from Minnesota, USA. Currently our group consists of Russ Durkee and Michael Koppelman and their respective observatories, The Shed of Science and Starhouse Observatory.
The Shed of Science
The Shed of Science is located deep within the Minneapolis light dome. The skies are fairly bright, however reasonably good differential photometry can be done from this location. The main telescope is a Celestron .35m Schmidt Cassegrain operating at f7.4, on a Astro-Physics 900 equatorial mount. The main instrument is an SBIG ST10XE. Image acquisition is done by CCDSoft, or MPO Connections, while MPO Canopus or AIP4Win are used for image reduction and photometry. My primary focus is the determination of asteroid light curves. But I also periodically monitor CBA stars and RR Lyraes when possible.
Starhouse Observatory
Starhouse Observatory is located outside of Minneapolis, MN at N44.7 and W93.8. The skies are dark by urban standards -- the Milky Way is just visible. The transparancy is generally not very good and the skies are photometric very rarely. Yet for differential photometry the site is very adequate and all-sky photometry is possible a couple of dozen nights per year. The main telescope is a Takahashi 0.16m f/3.3 Newtonian astrograph on a Losmany GM-8 mount. The main instrument is an SBIG ST-7XE. Image acquisition is done with CCDSoft and image reduction and photometry is done with Mira Pro and/or IRAF on Mac OS X. I grab long time-series data runs on CBA stars when possible. I also do work on EBs, RR Lyraes and other variable stars. Data, light curves and publications are on my variable star pages.
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