To make available through collaboration, research data requested by members of the astronomical community worldwide.
Astronomers, especially those with teaching responsibilities, are finding it increasingly difficult to carry out "time-critical" research programs, not just because of these responsibilities, but because of the difficulty of being awarded observing time at the national observatories. The development of new detector technologies and larger telescopes have compelled these large national facilities to strengthen their support of this kind of instrumentation. The result has been a steady decline in budgetary support for the more traditional observing methods that use the smaller telescopes, often resulting in their closure. This is where facilities like Braeside come in.
Our principle activity is called "photometry", an observing procedure that directly, or indirectly, affects just about every area of astronomical research today. It is done with an instrument attached to the back plate of a telescope onto which the stellar object's light from the telescope is focused. In this way, we can accurately measure the brightness of the object. This brightness is recorded in a computer and by using our special programs, we can accurately determine its magnitude, color, temperature, and other information of astrophysical interest. These data are used to model what is going on up there. The resulting information is then sent to collaborating astronomers via the NASA Science Internet and is made available to astronomers throughout the world.
