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Space Science

Ultimate Webcam: Rent Time On A CCD Telescope 77

Posted by timothy from the work-for-hire dept.
leighklotz writes "I saw an ad for this in Science News and visited the site: http://www.arnierosner.com offers CCD-based telescopes that you control, from his mountaintop in Arizona. $50 for an hour's tiem gets you started. Too bad I hadn't read this last week when Saturn's rings were at their peak." I bet this gives some entrepreneurial ideas ...
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Ultimate Webcam: Rent Time On A CCD Telescope More

Ultimate Webcam: Rent Time On A CCD Telescope

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  • This will revolutionize... (Score:4, Funny)

    by bahwi ( 43111 ) on Saturday December 21, 2002 @05:49PM (#4937752)
    Wow! This will revolutionize the desktop background industry! Talk about Innovative!

  • Other targets (Score:2, Interesting)

    by C.Maggard ( 635855 )
    I would've paid that to see the Leonid shower; I was under cloud cover at the time. If he can set up a few more sites to have more guarantee of clear skies, then I can see this turning into a viable service for amateur astronomers.

    • Re:Other targets (Score:2, Informative)

      by GigsVT ( 208848 )
      Leonid shower

      Through a telescope?

      Maybe if he set up some wide angle lenses or something.

    • Re:Other targets (Score:3, Informative)

      by jridley ( 9305 )
      Telescopes, heck, even binoculars are useless in a meteor shower, except for what they're good for every day. You want naked eye for meteor showers.
    • You can't get a whole lot better than Arizona for clear skies. They get precipitation in Tucson about twice a year (although it's for a month each time).

  • Lenoid shower? (Score:5, Funny)

    by InterruptDescriptorT ( 531083 ) on Saturday December 21, 2002 @05:51PM (#4937763) Homepage
    Forget that! Does something like that have the resolution to peer into my hot neighbour's shower? :-)
  • I would think that the delay between transmission and recieving would have been too great for *simultanous* control, but this could really prove useful, eg: normal scientist could make observations while on earth. Plus you could get some pretty groovy pics :)
    • as opposed to all those Abnormal scientists that make observations while in space.?

      or mutant earthbound scientists?

      sorry had to bait

  • hmm (Score:3, Funny)

    by Slashdotess ( 605550 ) <gchurch@hotmail.NETBSDcom minus bsd> on Saturday December 21, 2002 @05:54PM (#4937774)
    based on this [arnierosner.com] picture i sure hope he's not getting any rain out there!

  • "http://www.arnierosner.com offers CCD-based telescopes that you control, from his mountaintop in Arizona."

    It would suck to have to travel to his remote mountaintop just to control the thing though ;^} Now that's remote control! 8^}
  • when rain falls on the computers, that are outside...
    check the photo here [arnierosner.com]
  • What ideas does this give people? To set up their own telescopes you mean, or to use these in some sort of enterprising way?

  • in related news... (Score:3, Funny)

    by deft ( 253558 ) on Saturday December 21, 2002 @05:58PM (#4937789) Homepage
    the earth aimed telescopic camera pointed at my neighbors window is still for rent at a much cheaper $29.95 an hour.

  • Ok. I sent the guy 50 bucks, he sent me the URL and then I go to the web site and wait for "my turn". I hit reload every once and a while and it still tells me it's not my turn. After about 15 hours, the computer beeps at me and says: "She's all yers buddy, you get the controls for 60 minutes. Starting NOW"! But by then it was 3 o'clock in the afternoon!

    just kidding

  • Saturn's Rings (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Jade E. 2 ( 313290 ) <slashdot@perlstorm . n et> on Saturday December 21, 2002 @06:01PM (#4937803) Homepage
    Too bad I hadn't read this last week when Saturn's rings were at their peak

    It's okay, they took the pictures for you... http://www.arnierosner.com/ccd/wallpaper/saturn/ [arnierosner.com] (Actually those are older, sometime before Oct. 11, but they're still sweet.)

  • Not so big (Score:4, Interesting)

    by zer0vector ( 94679 ) on Saturday December 21, 2002 @06:02PM (#4937808)
    If the only telescopes he has are the ones in the picture there, its not much to write home about. The largest looked like about 8 inch aperture. I understand this is probably more aperture than alot of people have (I have a paltry 4.5), but then I always thought the fun of astrophotography was going out and spending all night up taking your own pictures. Braving the cold for 10 hours sure can be rewarding when you get your finished product.
    • Try again... 300mm (about 11inches). Goes for about $15000US.

      http://www.buytelescopes.com/product.asp?t=&pid= 15 51&m=35

      No comment on braving the cold.

      -Dubby

    • Re:Not so big (Score:2, Interesting)

      by arnierosner ( 636014 )
      Actually the larger instrument is a 12 inch reflecting scope with a focal length of 141 inches. The smaller widefield instrument is a 6 inch refractor. One of the finest ever built. It's focal length is 1050 MM's
  • Not being really sharp on description by lat and long, where the heck is the observatory? Maybe one you fellow /.ers who is smarter about these things can tell me.

    I'm curious because I live in Flagstaff.
  • Really? Ultimate for when? For whom? I can log on to space.com and many other sites, like NASA, and keep the $50 in my pocket. To me, it's no more "ultimate" than the White House Dog Cam, which I also did not visit.

    Ultimate is not here yet.

    "Score 0-Offtopic"

    • It seems the big difference is that you can control where the telescope points. As far as I know, NASA doesn't let you do that. ;-)

    • To me, it's no more "ultimate" than the White House Dog Cam, which I also did not visit.

      whitehouse.com or whitehouse.gov? I suspect $50 may be a bit much for a 'dog cam', but who knows?

      Amazing how much pay for pr0n these days..

  • Why Bother? (Score:1, Insightful)

    by flopsy mopsalon ( 635863 )
    So you pay 50 dollars to get a jpg of a celestial phenomenon. Why bother, when there are plenty of much better quality images of pretty much the whole sky (not to mention Hubble pictures, etc) to be downloaded for free? It's not like you can photograph the crab nebula from different angles or something.

    • why bother posting on slashdot (Score:5, Insightful)

      by rebelcool ( 247749 ) on Saturday December 21, 2002 @06:21PM (#4937859)
      when you know nothing about the topic being discussed?

      There are plenty of astronomical phenomena which you cannot get pictures (at least not good ones) available for free. If you're a serious amateur astronomer (as this caters to), and are interested in investigating a particular area of space in detail, you need some damn good photos.

      Damn good photos are not available to public, and they are not cheap. Professional astronomers pay hundreds of dollars for a few shots of an eclipsing binary system they may be studying. If you're an amateur who wants this kind of thing, its simply not available.

  • Old news (Score:5, Informative)

    by jridley ( 9305 ) on Saturday December 21, 2002 @06:35PM (#4937906)
    There are actually dozens of robotic telescopes that you can rent time on. Kitt Peak has had rental scopes accessible in various ways, including through Software Bisque's software for years. Amateurs have even built their own robotic telescopes and placed them in dark locations, then run them via the internet or dialup (actually just as good for single users)

  • He's in a great spot (Score:4, Interesting)

    by azpenguin ( 589022 ) on Saturday December 21, 2002 @06:35PM (#4937907)
    I live about 40 miles east of this guy. The skies out here at night are amazing. I live in Tucson, which is the nearest big city, and which is also close to Kitt Peak, a renowned observatory. Due to the importance of Kitt Peak, Tucson has strict outdoor lighting ordinances. Lights have to face downward, certain types of lights are prohibited, etc. As a result you have pretty good star views even in the middle of the city. And it also means that his scopes don't suffer light pollution problems (40 miles may seem like a long way, but you can see the lights of Phoenix clouding the sky from 100 miles off) from any city lights. You get just a little out of town, and you get fantastic viewing. We also don't get clouded over very often.
    • I wish more cities had strict lighting laws. Tere is no valid reason for the US to look like a damn prison when the sun goes down. It's ridiculous for night to be as bright as day because a few people are cowards. Light helps criminals. Only sudden light-like motion detection trips-deter them.

      • That's a very useful and valid observation.

        A good way to reduce energy costs, and cut light pollution would be to put streetlights on more or less randomized cycles so that they are only on for 1/8 or less of the time at night. Most of the time, they waste no energy and contribute nothing to light pollution. They still deter crime since they could come on at any time without much warning. Experimentation could determine the most optimal average duty cycle. Motion detectors could further refine the system so that the light never comes on uselessly.

        We are told time and again that lights should be turned off when nobody's in a room while miles of empty roads and sidewalks are uselessly lit all night long.

        Years ago, the sky was dark and full of stars where I live. Now, it rarely goes much darker than late twilight.

        At the same time, car headlights could easily be designed to be more effective and less light polluting by narrowing the low beam. driver at night should be looking forward and not upwards or at the roadside anyway.

    • Tucson has strict outdoor lighting ordinances. Lights have to face downward, certain types of lights are prohibited, etc.

      What a super idea. Why we do this all over the United States? It would be nice to get some of our night sky back.
    • In fact, during a tour I took of Kitt Peak the tour guide said they get more light pollution from Phoenix than from Tucson, even though it is more than twice as far away.
      • Very true... At the University of Arizona (in Tucson, the primary institution involved with Kitt Peak) they have a fish-eye-lens picture of the night sky from Kitt Peak. There are two very distinct blobs of light on the horizon, corresponding to Tucson and Phoenix.

        Doug

  • What if it's Slashdotted? (Score:4, Funny)

    by stevejsmith ( 614145 ) on Saturday December 21, 2002 @06:55PM (#4937980) Homepage
    Haha, I feel so sorry for the sucker who rented the time slot while this article is on Slashdot's front page. Do you get a refund if the site gets Slashdotted while it's your turn?
  • http://www.tenagraobservatories.com/

    You can pay to use serveral this scopes here as well . It looks like the scopes here are better!

  • Super astro imaging system (Score:5, Informative)

    by hubble29 ( 548626 ) on Saturday December 21, 2002 @11:12PM (#4938994)
    Actually $50/hr. is a pretty good deal. The three scopes, their mounts, and the ccd camera systems are worth about $75,000 -$100,000 total. Combine that with his location which has excellent seeing in excess of 80% of the time and you have a prime system for some real serious deep sky work. Most people don't realize how difficult astrophotography is. During the exposure which can last anywhere bewteen seconds and hours depending on the magnitude (brightness) of the object being imaged, the scope must track the object without any vibration or error as the earth rotates (less than .000005in. at the mount). In addition to this, these scopes must have perfect goto systems, any error and the user will have a zero chance of being able find where the scope is pointing too. The ccd cameras on these scopes are top self stuff, depending on exactly which cameras he has, they cost anywhere between $5,000 and $25,000. The peltier cooling systems on the ccd cameras would make most over clockers droole. The ccd chip temperature must be maintained +- .5C or better and at 0C or below to maintain image and data accuraccy plus the temperature must be ramped down and back up at a rate which will not destroy the ccd chip. Also since these are robotic ccd camera scopes, they must be focused by software control. Put the whole system together and you have some very serious computer hardware and software. By the way, this guy has a roll off observatory building, that's why the scopes appear to be in the open. You still have plenty of time to enjoy Saturns rings for at least another year; meteor showers are viewed best with the naked eye, a scope has too narrow of a view to catch them; and no you can't or even Hubble see the flag on the moon. It would take something bigger than the Twin Kecks in orbit.m This stuff is actually computer geek heaven!

  • coolness (Score:2, Insightful)

    by 1fitz2many ( 409956 )
    This is probably noteworthy because of the coolness factor. A good site and well-cooled imaging arrays are not so easy to come by at an amateur level, so if you don't want to invest heavily in hardware, you can try a few things to see if they suit your taste. I would imagine that most buyers aim at targets for "pretty pictures," instead of for some home-brewed science project.

    From a strictly scientific perspective, it's probably not cost-effective to run a research project from a site like this. First of all, most astromonomical research requires some amount of spectroscopy. Of course, looking at a spectrum isn't as visually stunning (to some of us) as an awesome Hubble photo.

    But, we must keep in mind that important science can be done from the ground. Ever found a supernova, asteroid, or comet? There are several unmanned, robotic telescopes around the world that are constantly searching the skies for just these types of object. This is the sort of thing that a hacker with a few bucks to spare (for equipment) could get into.
  • The only way i'll pay that sort of money is if that telescope was mounted on a Satellite and pointed at earth.

    Can you just imagine the coolness of a hi rez orbiting telescope you could control over the net?

    *Whips out PDA*

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