PRO BONO VISITOR & TELESCOPE TIME

Tenagra Observatories keeps a steady stream of pro bono users and visitors from all over the world.  We welcome the opportunity to help student and professional researchers who do not have access to telescopes.  Here are a few of our users.  NOTE:  If you wish to be a pro bono user of a Tenagra telescope please submit the following:  (1) A short proposal of what you wish to do, (2) a biographical sketch with an emphasis on observational astronomy and (3) a picture of yourself.  In addition, it is important that a pro bono user has some experience in CCD image reduction or works closely with someone who does.  Sorry, we cannot consider providing pro bono time on a Tenagra telescope unless we receive these items via e-mail or snail mail.

NOTE:  We do not accept "open ended" research.  Pro bono work is for new researchers to gain experience for a limited amount of observing and perhaps help them to create a first publication.

Applicants should contact Michael Schwartz directly at mbs@tenagraobservatories.com.

This is Bob Lindherheim.  He presented a picture-perfect request for pro bono time and he successfully recovered his minor plant, 1996 NO1 at about 20th magnitude from Tenagra images.  Bob was wonderful to work with and we love the cover on his Mead.  We have included his request verbatim as it is a good form for others to study and copy.  Note that he studied the Tenagra request language and made it very easy for us to take him images.  We had fun, Bob!

Application for Pro bono Telescope time.

Proposal: I would like to use the Tenagra telescope in a single night to procure 3 images of an asteroid that is far too faint for my equipment, and will be at about opposition at the requested time.  The asteroid currently has been measured at 4 oppositions and is the last of 24 I have discovered from 1996 to 1999, all others discovered have been numbered.  I have been imaging, measuring and reporting (to MPC) asteroids for 8 years from my observing site named Lime Creek 721 located in SW Nebraska.

Request of Observations of Solar System Object with Published Ephemeris
SSP 1996 NO1      300.00  3   -1 2 FUL   V  1  1     32IN 2005-01-06 2005-01-14
 

This is Paul Rimmer.   He is working under Prof. Alberto C. Sadun at University of Colorado at Denver.  Paul and Alberto needed a single night of images to determine if any of 3 galaxies have optical jets to match those found in radio and x-ray observations.  Dr. Sadun reports: 

"I can now report results of the discovery project in which I used your 32-inch telescope to look at three candidate objects.  After complete reduction my student (Paul) showed me all three sets of data (co-added per set), and in two cases we saw nothing significant.  However, on the third object, we found a feature that is in exactly the same place and points in the same direction and looks quite similar to the x-ray counterpart.  It would be difficult to argue that it is a dim foreground star.  This is really exciting.  The odds are about 1 in 1000 to find an optical counterpart to a radio jet, but by "playing the odds" and making an intelligent guess, we managed to get 1 out of 3 ... But, one thing for sure, your 32-inch telescope is demonstrably capable of doing the first step--finding the optical counterpart in the first place."

Dr. Alberto Sadun is now a regular user of the Tenagra II telescope.
 

The 3rd grade from Patagonia Elementary School, Patagonia, AZ came to visit.  Shown is part of the class with their teacher Patty Cooper.  At Tenagra we love visits from children.  They have Nobel Prize winning questions and no hesitations when asking them.  Thank you, Patagonia Elementary School!

Alexander Bojilov is 27 years old and a student at the University of Technology Dresden (Germany).  He is finishing his studies by writing a diploma thesis at the Lohrmann-Observatory in Dresden (http://astro.geo.tu-dresden.de).  He is investigating the capabilities and availability of automatic and remote telescopes via the internet.   Alexander came to us because his current telescopes are limited to magnitude 14 and he wishes to observe objects much dimmer..  He is using the 32" Tenagra II and 14" Tenagra IV telescopes.  He is very interested in astrometry, including observations of some 19th century discoveries made at the observatory in Dresden.