3 ms·

Just wondering, is there a network of telescope webcams? Hobby astronomers hooking up their telescopes to the internet, perhaps even with remote controlled moun

by Tichy 14y ago

Just wondering, is there a network of telescope webcams? Hobby astronomers hooking up their telescopes to the internet, perhaps even with remote controlled mounts? Would save the costs of buying my own telescope, which wouldn't be much use in the city anyway.

frossie 14y ago
You mean something like http://www.itelescope.net/ http://www.itelescope.net/ ? Also check for a local amateur astronomy association. Research telescopes often have live feeds for popular events (such as the Venus transit). Finally depending on your location you may be no further than a day trip away to an astronomical facility - they often have events open to the public, stargazing etc. BTW Here's another "christmassy" picture (this time of the Bubble Nebula) from a brand new instrument: http://www.noao.edu/image_gallery/html/im1136.html http://www.noao.edu/image_gallery/html/im1136.html Disclaimer - Latter link is my employer, but I have nothing to gain from you clicking on it :-) Oh Edit: you can also go data-mining in public astronomy databases, though sadly most of them are not geared for use by the general public. Oh Edit2: You can have some fun with this http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/ http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/ but you need Silverlight
- arethuza 14y ago
  Also this lot: http://www.lightbuckets.com/ http://www.lightbuckets.com/
- mturmon 14y ago
  Another related development in democratization of astronomy is publishing of transient events (brightenings/dimmings of objects) as they happen. You can subscribe to feeds from robotic transient surveys, that do the image processing and photometry to generate events in near real time (e.g.: http://skyalert.org/ http://skyalert.org/). The events are published in a standard format so you can automate follow-up as well. Many of the events are asteroids or possible NEOs, but others are galactic and extra-galactic, like supernovae, blazars, etc. It's not backyard astronomy, because the events are being detected by 1 meter telescopes and have magnitude of perhaps 18 or 20, but it's a more open and data-rich situation than a few sources being kept under wraps for follow-up by the discoverer only.

by Tichy 14y ago

frossie 14y ago

You mean something like http://www.itelescope.net/ http://www.itelescope.net/ ? Also check for a local amateur astronomy association. Research telescopes often have live feeds for popular events (such as the Venus transit). Finally depending on your location you may be no further than a day trip away to an astronomical facility - they often have events open to the public, stargazing etc. BTW Here's another "christmassy" picture (this time of the Bubble Nebula) from a brand new instrument: http://www.noao.edu/image_gallery/html/im1136.html http://www.noao.edu/image_gallery/html/im1136.html Disclaimer - Latter link is my employer, but I have nothing to gain from you clicking on it :-) Oh Edit: you can also go data-mining in public astronomy databases, though sadly most of them are not geared for use by the general public. Oh Edit2: You can have some fun with this http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/ http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/ but you need Silverlight

arethuza 14y ago
Also this lot: http://www.lightbuckets.com/ http://www.lightbuckets.com/
mturmon 14y ago
Another related development in democratization of astronomy is publishing of transient events (brightenings/dimmings of objects) as they happen. You can subscribe to feeds from robotic transient surveys, that do the image processing and photometry to generate events in near real time (e.g.: http://skyalert.org/ http://skyalert.org/). The events are published in a standard format so you can automate follow-up as well. Many of the events are asteroids or possible NEOs, but others are galactic and extra-galactic, like supernovae, blazars, etc. It's not backyard astronomy, because the events are being detected by 1 meter telescopes and have magnitude of perhaps 18 or 20, but it's a more open and data-rich situation than a few sources being kept under wraps for follow-up by the discoverer only.