[AANC Contacts] Fwd: NASA EPOXI mission seeks amateur support

[KENNETH FRANK]

Hello All,

Gary Fujihara of UH Institute for Astronomy on the Big Island asked me  
to pass this email request on.
Please respond to Dr. Livengood with your images and questions.

Ken
Begin forwarded message:
>
> I, Tim Livengood am a co-investigator with NASA's EPOXI mission (http://epoxi.astro.umd.edu/ 
> ). We have visible and near-IR observations of Mars coming up on  
> November 20, and I would like to invite the community of independent  
> (amateur) astronomers to contribute to this effort. We have  
> previously observed the Earth on several occasions through a full  
> rotation, as an engineering model for future systems to detect and  
> characterize extrasolar Earth-like terrestrial planets. We also need  
> to recognize non-Earthlike terrestrial planets, hence the planned  
> observations of Mars.
>
> We plan to observe Mars through (nearly) a full rotation, similar to  
> what we have done for the Earth. Unlike the other EPOXI targets,  
> this is a target that can be observed very well from the Earth's  
> surface. Earth-based observations over a few weeks prior to and  
> following the EPOXI observation date, 20 November 2009, would help  
> us to verify the physical condition of Mars at the time (e.g., dust  
> storm? variable cloud cover) and to more fully and definitively map  
> the light curve. While our primary interest is in the globally- 
> integrated lightcurve, resolved imaging is desirable so that we can  
> identify specific surface units and conditions with any lightcurve  
> features. We presently have observers in New Mexico and in  
> Australia, so observations from Hawaii would be a great help to fill  
> in the lightcurve. The spacecraft is equipped with 7 visible  
> filters, centered on 350, 450, 550, 650, 750, 850, 950 nm, with 100  
> nm width (center ±50 nm). We will observe hourly with all 7, and  
> every 15 minutes with 450, 550, 650, 850. Near-IR spectroscopy at  
> 1-4.7 micron will be every two hours.
>
> Most useful to us would be for observers to provide UT-timestamped  
> monochromatic images of Mars and photometric standard stars with a  
> description of the filter or filters used to acquire the data. We  
> can do bias-subtraction and flatfielding -- but truthfully, we would  
> most welcome reduced data for which these steps have already been  
> performed. Our other observers presently are using Regulus as a  
> standard to intercompare images. The most valuable contribution  
> would be observations in filters similar to any one (or more than  
> one!) of our filters, every 15 minutes with calibration measurements  
> of a star or stars in between. For this project, it probably is best  
> to have as many or more calibration measurements as observations of  
> the actual target. Feel free to make calibration measurements of  
> other stars, so long as you can identify them for us!
>
> We have no funds to support acquiring filters or filter sets. This  
> is pure unfunded pleading. Any data contributed to this effort can  
> be recompensed by the only means available to astronomers: public  
> acknowledgement of your contribution.
>
> For further details or to deliver images, please contact sciencetimlivengood at gmail.com
>
> Thanks,
>
> Tim