It got the attention of NASA.
On March 4, 2000, a small band of amateur astronomers using a 40-year-old telescope and a home-built CCD camera succeeded in something that few professionals even try. They detected the faint afterglow of a distant gamma-ray burst -- one of the most powerful explosions in the cosmos.
It got the attention of NASA.
When asked to provide information about the equipment that was used to capture the burst transient image, Bill wrote back as follows:
Hi Steve:
The specs for our system are as follows; we have a handmade 12" Newtonian at
f/6.4, the mount is handmade also, as far as tracking accuracy we can usually
do 20 second unguided exposures before the stars begin to distort, the CCD
camera we use is a cookbook 245 put together by club members and we use it in
the high res mode which is about a 375 x 250 pixel array, the field of view
is about 12 x 7 arc-minutes which comes out to about 1.8 arcsec per pixel,
the GRB we imaged consisted of eleven 5-minute exposures which were then
added together to create a composite.
We image at our clubs observatory about 30 miles outside of Buffalo. We have
a small "roll-off" roof observatory with a small computer/warming room. About
5 years ago the club added a small attached lecture room which holds about 20
people, we have about 15 "public nights" there a year and always have a talk
or slide show (its cloudy in Buffalo a lot) so the lecture room gets a lot of
use. The club also has a variety of observational scopes (6"-8"-20" dobs, a
few 6" refractors which are old and resemble torpedoes, a 10" LX200 which
we
are trying to build a pier for this summer, etc..) all located at this site
which members use as well as the public when they visit. Our CCD system is on
the 12" which is permanently pier mounted in the roll-off portion of the
observatory. This scope was made by club members (now deceased) about 40
years ago, they ground the mirror by hand also. Our club has been in
continuous operation for at least 50 years (since World War II ended).
The newer members (younger guys by our clubs standards) kind of inherited the
12" which was originally designed and built to do astrophotography, it has an
attached 4" refractor for long guiding sessions. We cleaned up and fixed up
the old scope and then built and attached the CCD camera so we could
experiment with CCD imaging. A group of us have been fiddling around with the
system for about two years now. We work as a group on all of our projects (it
is much more fun and interesting that way) and we always observe or image in
groups. We are a pretty sociable club and most members will tell you it is
the friendships they make within the club that matter the most. Our motto is
simple, have fun together and do astronomy. The CCD camera and computers and
dozens of miscellaneous accessories we always seem to need are for the most
part paid for, out of our clubs small treasury, one item at a time. We must
spend countless hours discussing and debating each expenditure which is part
of the fun of being in a club I guess. Club members are always quick to
donate whatever they can and somehow it all seems to come together. We really
have very basic resources available to us and just do the best we can with
what we have. What we do have an abundance in however, is a "positive"
atmosphere to work in. If you have a reasonable idea and are willing to
pursue it the club WILL support you.
Thanks for sending your message and if I can be of any help to your club
just ask.
Bill Aquino