Science @Galati

Even if the main purpose of the Observatory’s equipment is the popularization of astronomy, we are currently involved in an increasing number of scientific projects; but first, let’s see the observing setup:

• Ritchey-Chretien f/8 0.4m telescope + CCD SBIG STL-6303 NABG
• Direct Drive equatorial mount – DDM85

So with this setup we have a pixel size of 0.58”/pixel and a FOV of 29.8′ x 19.9′, which we find ideal for the following:

1. NEO observations: Galati Observatory received it’s MPC/IAU observatory code C73 at the end of August 2011; two weeks later, the observatory team started the collaboration with EURONEAR, a NEO observing network of 14 observing nodes located in 5 countries; the team members are: Ovidiu Tercu, the coordinator of the observatory and Alex Dumitriu, student at University of Glasgow;
2. Providing astrometrical data for neglected double stars from the WDS Catalog: this is a project in collaboration with the Astronomy Club from Brasov, Romania and the team members are Ovidiu Tercu & Alex Dumitriu from the part of the Observatory and Lucian Curelaru, Valentin Gavrilă and Cătălin Vladu from the Astronomy Club from Brasov.
3. Exoplanets transit events: using the main Ritchey-Chretien telescope, photometry filters and STL-6303e CCD, we officially begun the observations of exoplanets in the month of March 2012; we submit our lightcurvers to the Exoplanet Transit Database, coordinated by the Czech Astronomical Society. The team members are: Ovidiu Tercu, the coordinator of the observatory and Alex Dumitriu.

Results