¹Dhani Herdiwijaya,² Mitra Djamal,³ Hendra Gunawan

¹⁾ Astronomy Research Group and Bosscha Observatory,
Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, ITB, Ganesha 10 Bandung 40132

²⁾ Instrument and Theoretical Physics Research Group,
Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, ITB, Ganesha 10 Bandung 40132

³⁾ Analysis and Geometry Research Group,
Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, ITB, Ganesha 10 Bandung 40132

E-mail: ¹dhani@as.itb.ac.id

Received: December 2011, Accepted: June 2012

Abstract

The visibility of very young lunar crescent near the Sun at western horizon after sunset is indispensable important factor in determining important religious Islamic calendar. One can see it at horizon after the sunset as this is the less stringent condition However, in an advanced scientific and technological based, the observation of lunar crescent near the Sun can be undertaken in broad daylight before sunset. The research project will study and develop some additional observing tools, image acquisition and image processing procedures for mobile and robotic observing system that one enable to search the very young crescent in broad daylight. The main problem is how to minimize the atmospheric and instrumental stray light that can obscure the information from the very young crescent image from the daylight background. We have developed and tested a simple extended telescope baffle that can reduce the incoming stray light from the sky and environment. Hence, it will increase the contrast of the lunar crescent. Some requirements and optimization have been applied for the robotic observing system (telescope and its mounting), image acquisition and image processing procedures. The free software and digital camera are used. The observational main constraint was the cloudy sky on the first day of lunar calendar. The progresses will be reported.

 Keywords: lunar crescent visibility; robotic telescope; telescope baffle

Paper lengkap dapat dibaca di tautan berikut  http://journal.engineering.or.id/joki