BRC Optical Ground-Based Follow-Up
Big Picture
Optical data can be incredibly helpful in weeding out garbage from our YSO selection. Remember that Spitzer is phenomenally efficient, and with just a few seconds can reach objects at the edge of the Universe. Recall the discussion in the CG4 paper, and just at a gut level how much nicer the SEDs look if we have optical data too. Recall the stuff on the Resolution page (specifically example 4) and how much high spatial resolution matters. High spatial resolution optical imaging may allow us to determine that some of these objects are actually resolved galaxies. Once we add their photometry to the SEDs, the shape of the SEDs may allow us to determine that some of these objects are actually AGN and not YSOs.
The Las Cumbres Faulkes Telescope on Haleakala (specifially JD Armstrong) has kindly offered to help us get optical ground-based follow-up observations. We need to plan coherently (professionally!) for these observations to ensure we get the best quality data in the least amount of time possible. ("Ooops we screwed up" will not generally get you additional telescope time.)
Planning Observations
In order to plan for ground-based follow-up of our targets, we have many things to consider.
- Are the objects visible (ever) from the observatory(ies) to which we have access? Ex 1: the CG4 object from last year is a Southern Hemisphere object, so unless you have access to a Southern Hemisphere telescope, that's not possible. Ex 2: the BRC objects are Northern Hemisphere (both of them). When are they visible from the LCOGT telescope in Hawaii? See airmasses calculation below.
Hourly almanac (airmasses) for our targets
calculated for Hawaii.
*** Hourly airmass for brc27 *** Epoch 2000.00: RA 7 04 00.0, dec -11 22 55 Epoch 2011.87: RA 7 04 33.4, dec -11 24 01 At midnight: UT date 2011 Nov 16, Moon 0.72 illum, 31 degr from obj Local UT LMST HA secz par.angl. SunAlt MoonAlt 18 00 4 00 21 18 -9 47 (down) -71.1 -4.8 ... 19 00 5 00 22 18 -8 47 (down) -73.4 ... ... 20 00 6 00 23 18 -7 47 (down) -73.5 ... ... 21 00 7 00 0 18 -6 46 (down) -72.2 ... ... 22 00 8 00 1 18 -5 46 (v.low) -69.9 ... -1.6 23 00 9 00 2 18 -4 46 4.439 -66.3 ... 11.5 0 00 10 00 3 19 -3 46 2.261 -61.0 ... 24.8 1 00 11 00 4 19 -2 46 1.602 -52.8 ... 38.4 2 00 12 00 5 19 -1 46 1.318 -40.0 ... 52.1 3 00 13 00 6 19 -0 45 1.195 -19.8 ... 65.9 4 00 14 00 7 19 0 15 1.172 6.7 ... 79.6 5 00 15 00 8 19 1 15 1.240 30.7 ... 84.8 6 00 16 00 9 20 2 15 1.430 47.0 -7.7 71.6 At midnight: UT date 2011 Dec 16, Moon 0.67 illum, 51 degr from obj Local UT LMST HA secz par.angl. SunAlt MoonAlt 18 00 4 00 23 16 -7 49 (down) -73.5 -4.0 ... 19 00 5 00 0 16 -6 48 (down) -72.3 -17.1 ... 20 00 6 00 1 16 -5 48 (v.low) -70.0 ... ... 21 00 7 00 2 16 -4 48 4.599 -66.5 ... ... 22 00 8 00 3 17 -3 48 2.297 -61.2 ... ... 23 00 9 00 4 17 -2 48 1.616 -53.2 ... 2.1 0 00 10 00 5 17 -1 48 1.324 -40.5 ... 15.7 1 00 11 00 6 17 -0 47 1.197 -20.6 ... 29.4 2 00 12 00 7 17 0 13 1.171 5.7 ... 42.9 3 00 13 00 8 17 1 13 1.236 30.0 ... 56.0 4 00 14 00 9 18 2 13 1.420 46.6 ... 67.7 5 00 15 00 10 18 3 13 1.830 57.0 ... 74.2 6 00 16 00 11 18 4 13 2.884 63.7 -11.5 69.5
*** Hourly airmass for brc34 *** Epoch 2000.00: RA 21 33 30.0, dec +58 04 32 Epoch 2011.62: RA 21 33 50.9, dec +58 07 39 At midnight: UT date 2011 Aug 16, Moon 0.93 illum, 61 degr from obj Local UT LMST HA secz par.angl. SunAlt MoonAlt 19 00 5 00 16 15 -5 19 2.653 -87.8 -3.0 ... 20 00 6 00 17 15 -4 19 1.997 -100.9 -16.4 -1.4 21 00 7 00 18 15 -3 18 1.639 -115.3 ... 12.4 22 00 8 00 19 16 -2 18 1.434 -131.9 ... 26.2 23 00 9 00 20 16 -1 18 1.322 -151.3 ... 39.8 0 00 10 00 21 16 -0 18 1.277 -173.2 ... 52.9 1 00 11 00 22 16 0 42 1.288 164.1 ... 64.6 2 00 12 00 23 16 1 42 1.359 143.1 ... 71.8 3 00 13 00 0 16 2 43 1.504 124.9 ... 69.1 4 00 14 00 1 17 3 43 1.760 109.2 ... 59.1 5 00 15 00 2 17 4 43 2.212 95.4 -14.8 46.5 6 00 16 00 3 17 5 43 3.080 82.7 -1.4 33.2 At midnight: UT date 2011 Sep 16, Moon 0.86 illum, 66 degr from obj Local UT LMST HA secz par.angl. SunAlt MoonAlt 19 00 5 00 18 17 -3 17 1.631 -115.8 -9.2 ... 20 00 6 00 19 17 -2 16 1.430 -132.5 ... ... 21 00 7 00 20 18 -1 16 1.320 -151.9 ... 6.6 22 00 8 00 21 18 -0 16 1.276 -173.9 ... 20.0 23 00 9 00 22 18 0 44 1.289 163.4 ... 33.6 0 00 10 00 23 18 1 44 1.362 142.5 ... 47.4 1 00 11 00 0 18 2 44 1.510 124.3 ... 61.3 2 00 12 00 1 18 3 45 1.771 108.8 ... 75.2 3 00 13 00 2 19 4 45 2.232 95.0 ... 87.5 4 00 14 00 3 19 5 45 3.119 82.3 ... 76.4 5 00 15 00 4 19 6 45 5.239 70.0 -17.1 62.6 6 00 16 00 5 19 7 45 14.754 57.7 -3.1 48.8 At midnight: UT date 2011 Oct 16, Moon 0.84 illum, 79 degr from obj Local UT LMST HA secz par.angl. SunAlt MoonAlt 18 00 4 00 19 15 -2 18 1.435 -131.9 -1.2 ... 19 00 5 00 20 16 -1 18 1.323 -151.2 -15.2 ... 20 00 6 00 21 16 -0 18 1.277 -173.2 ... ... 21 00 7 00 22 16 0 42 1.288 164.2 ... 4.2 22 00 8 00 23 16 1 42 1.358 143.1 ... 17.1 23 00 9 00 0 16 2 42 1.503 124.9 ... 30.3 0 00 10 00 1 16 3 43 1.759 109.3 ... 43.6 1 00 11 00 2 17 4 43 2.211 95.5 ... 57.2 2 00 12 00 3 17 5 43 3.076 82.7 ... 70.8 3 00 13 00 4 17 6 43 5.122 70.4 ... 84.0 4 00 14 00 5 17 7 43 13.931 58.1 ... 81.2 5 00 15 00 6 17 8 43 (down) 45.4 ... 67.7 6 00 16 00 7 17 9 44 (down) 32.1 -4.8 54.1
