Determining Precise Positions of Supernovae

Volume 15 number 2 (1986)

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William S. Penhallow

Quonochontaug Observatory,

Abstract

A 0.25m/0.32m lenseless Schmidt camera mounted piggyback on the University of Rhode Island (URI) astrometric reflector (Penhallow 1978) is used to determine the positions of supernovae within 0.1 second of arc. Measurable 15.5 magnitude images can be obtained on hypered Kodak SR-5 x-ray film in 4 minutes under favorable conditions. Five exposures with about 16 reference stars are normally used.