A Paper for Newbies

[Tom Droege <tdroege2@earthlink.net>]

For newbies, you might take a look at:

"ROTSE All Sky Surveys for Variable Stars I: Test Fields"

http://xxx.lanl.gov/PS_cache/astro-ph/pdf/0001/0001388.pdf

The ROTSE1 system is quite similar to a Mark IV.  They are using 200 mm fl 
f/1.8 camera lenses compared to our 400mm fl f/4 Elliot Burke optics.  So 
their pixels are even larger than ours.  They have a similar camera.  They 
have an array of four cameras covering a larger area of sky, I recall about 
16 x 16 degrees compared to our 4 x 4.  They run without filters, so they 
are more sensitive than we are in spite of the larger pixel.  Of course, 
they are running in a proper mountain location.  They should have many 
problems in data analysis that are similar to ours.  This is probably a 
good source to check whether we are achieving what is possible.  This paper 
is relatively old.

Reading the paper, they have found lots of new variable stars.  There is no 
doubt that we can also find lots of new variables.  It is just a question 
of analyzing the data.  The last I knew, they did not have funding to 
continue data analysis even though they have lots more data.  We have 
funding.  I will pay all who work on this the same rate as I pay myself.

Tom Droege