Re: [ATM] the future of amateur telescope making and amateur astronomy

[Andy Saulietis <iss@pvtnetworks.net>]

My $0.02 worth input:

At the (sold out) Stars's End astronomy  land development here in S N 
Mexico, there
are already 5 16-24" aperture remotely operated 
telescopes/observatories. Others are
located nearby  on privately owned or leased observing sites, some 
available on a pay-per-view
basis, taking advantage of the very dark skies and 7000-9000ft elevation.

This seems to be the wave of the future for many doing CCD imaging 
and photometry..it's no
longer necessary to travel to distant sites away from light pollution 
to have real-time access
to excellent sky conditions.

The access to high speed internet has made this possible and the 
ever-increasing bandwidth will
eventually allow HDTV real time video for viewing objects without the 
need to be dark adapted and
in full color. Imagine the view of Omega Centauri filling a 60" HDTV 
screen...<g>

Personally, I would still prefer the direct eyeball view in a dark 
sky with a large telescope..but being
able to view electronically from a distant location would be the next 
best thing, IMHO.

The drawback to this technology is its cost and complexity..many 
cannot afford to purchase the required
equipment or have the skills needed to build and operate these 
systems. But 20 years ago few had
access to large computerized telescopes at reasonable cost..now 
they're commonplace!

I can also see that the Internet operated telescopes could be the 
basis of a network of amateur research
groups to combine the observations of objects simultaneously with 
multiple telescopes in real time, each having different
instrumentation, with the capability to combine date and improve 
sensitivity and resolution.

Andy Saulietis

  


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