"You guys are fantastic! The degree of assistance, professionalism, and interest goes way, WAY above and beyond the call of duty. I'm sure I'm speaking for Jack here as well when I tell you how very much your help is appreciated. I never dreamed that we could get this level of support from an on-line provider, it is frankly unprecedented. Thanks so very much!"

Dr. Patrick Miller 
(Director of the International Astronomical Search Collaboration [IASC]) 

“I am very, very pleased with IASC's follow-up work with SSON.  This was the best investment we've made in the IASC program in a long, long while.  It is outstanding!!”

John Pye
(Maui Community College) 

"Hi Rich:

Nice comments from everyone! And I agree the data from SSON is very good. I had one of my students reduce the Kleopatra data and she got a nice light curve. The data was superb."

 "I wish I could express to you how critical it is to have access to your services for institutions like ours.             Thanks again! My students are having the time of their lives. I even have students not officially enrolled in the class taking the class!  When have you ever seen students signing up for more work? 

I have to be honest, I love the way this works.  I made this a small part of the course this term since I was trying it for the first time, but I am putting in a proposal next term for some more resources to extend the use of the scope. 

Again, keep up the good work.  This is a *very* important service, especially for Universities like Weber that don't have the resources to manage our own robotic observatory.  My astrophysics students have never been more excited!!!" 

"Ciao Rich,

I've to tell you the ... it is the first time that I got 8 designations in a row !!!! I think that my system is doing pretty well, but moreover SSO is something fabulous. Quality of images are spectaculars. SNR let me to do astrometry up to mag 19.0V with just single 90 exposure images. 
 

Fabrizio" 

"Thanks Rich, I *really* appreciate the extra light-year you go for your customers! 

--Bill "

"... WE GOT IT!!! 

Finally had some time this Labor Day to work on the data.  I picked a 10-minute run to look at, which I though was near the event (and which brought my computer to its knees!). 

I'm attaching the photometry plot from MaxIm DL.  Pluto is in red, the other lines are my ensemble comp stars, the light green is my check star.

Will have to do some more processing to see if I can beat the noise down a bit more, but this is pretty thrilling stuff! 

Thanks so much for your support!!!! 

Regards, 

--Bill" 

"Rich, your images are splendid.  Very silky smooth.  Great technique.  I get so used to flats that haven't been done well, and auto-darks that have just a single dark frame, rather than Master Darks.  It is just a joy to use your images.  I also see how you have cooled the CCD down to -30 C.  It makes for a clean image.  I have also become accustomed to other facilities that only cool to -10 C or -15 C.  The difference is noticable.

Last night I made us of our local community college RC-20" f/8.1.  We took 36 one minute images, stacked in groups of 12.  Only when I used a tracking parameter for one of the known asteroids did that asteroid become visible.  There were two asteroids in the FOV, but only one had a signal to noise ratio in the 5-10 range. The other was undetectable.

In contrast, the SSON images, with 1/6 the exposure time, clearly showed the two known asteroids in the FOV: 59074 (18.7)  and another.  They stood out clearly to the unaided eye. No need to use the Moving Object Detection or the Known Object Overlay. They wee the cleanest images I've used. Professional in every way. I will not hesitate to use SSON again, and tell those I collaborate with about your great service. And the community of helpful amateurs that has build up around the observatory, such as Fabrizio.  Thanks Fabrizio."

Paul Camilleri
(Australian amateur astronomer)