Around the World in 80 Telescopes - Global Online Telescope Webcast

matt · #1 01-04-2009, 12:19 PM

I don't know if this has already been publicised? I got the press release earlier today.

But this is taking place this Friday....April 3...as part of the IYA and 100 Hours of Astronomy.

5 Aussie telescopes are taking part in the webcast that allows members of the public to view the sky from professional observatories around the world and in space. Looks like a lot of fun:

Around the world in 80 telescopes

See stars from the comfort of home

The 100 Hours of Astronomy event, which will see literally millions of eyes around the world trained skyward this weekend, kicks off tomorrow (April 2). But people can take part in two of the major events of the 100 Hours from Friday night without leaving the comfort of home.

The online webcast Around the World in 80 Telescopes, will take viewers inside the most high-tech professional observatories both on and off the planet, while the 100 Hours of Remote Astronomy allows members of the public control of a telescope online.

Around the World in 80 Telescopes

You can put yourself into the shoes of an astronomer – unique scientists whose night-time escapades produce some of their greatest work – for a 24-hour period.

Around the World in 80 Telescopes starts at 8pm Australian Eastern Daylight time on Friday April 3. The webcast will begin with observatories on Mauna Kea in Hawaii and move west across New Zealand, Australia, Asia, Africa, Europe, Antarctica and the Americas, finishing on the west coast of the US. All the details are posted at www.100hoursofastronomy.org.
The webcast will feature advanced astronomical observatories on earth and in space, using visible light, radio waves or other wavelengths. Observatories will be observing distant galaxies, searching for planets around other stars and studying our own solar system. You will be able to see images of the cosmos, send in questions and discover what astronomers are doing, on the spot.
Five Australian telescopes — the Anglo-Australian Telescope near Coonabarabran (webcasting from 11pm local time, April 3); CSIRO’s Parkes telescope (webcasting at 11.20am local time, April 4); the Mount Pleasant radio telescope of the University of Tasmania
(12 noon local time, April 4); the Australian International Gravitational Observatory in Gingin, WA (9.20am local time, April 4) and the Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope near Queanbeyan (3.40pm local time, April 4) — are taking part.
Other observatories include the Kepler Mission, the Hubble Space Telescope, and the IceCube Neutrino Telescope at the South Pole. A timetable is at: http://100hoursofastronomy.org/progr...vatory-webcast

kinetic (Steve) · #2 03-04-2009, 08:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by matt

I don't know if this has already been publicised? I got the press release earlier today.

But this is taking place this Friday....April 3...as part of the IYA and 100 Hours of Astronomy.

5 Aussie telescopes are taking part in the webcast that allows members of the public to view the sky from professional observatories around the world and in space. Looks like a lot of fun:

Around the world in 80 telescopes

See stars from the comfort of home

The 100 Hours of Astronomy event, which will see literally millions of eyes around the world trained skyward this weekend, kicks off tomorrow (April 2). But people can take part in two of the major events of the 100 Hours from Friday night without leaving the comfort of home.

The online webcast Around the World in 80 Telescopes, will take viewers inside the most high-tech professional observatories both on and off the planet, while the 100 Hours of Remote Astronomy allows members of the public control of a telescope online.

Around the World in 80 Telescopes

You can put yourself into the shoes of an astronomer – unique scientists whose night-time escapades produce some of their greatest work – for a 24-hour period.

Around the World in 80 Telescopes starts at 8pm Australian Eastern Daylight time on Friday April 3. The webcast will begin with observatories on Mauna Kea in Hawaii and move west across New Zealand, Australia, Asia, Africa, Europe, Antarctica and the Americas, finishing on the west coast of the US. All the details are posted at www.100hoursofastronomy.org.
The webcast will feature advanced astronomical observatories on earth and in space, using visible light, radio waves or other wavelengths. Observatories will be observing distant galaxies, searching for planets around other stars and studying our own solar system. You will be able to see images of the cosmos, send in questions and discover what astronomers are doing, on the spot.
Five Australian telescopes — the Anglo-Australian Telescope near Coonabarabran (webcasting from 11pm local time, April 3); CSIRO’s Parkes telescope (webcasting at 11.20am local time, April 4); the Mount Pleasant radio telescope of the University of Tasmania
(12 noon local time, April 4); the Australian International Gravitational Observatory in Gingin, WA (9.20am local time, April 4) and the Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope near Queanbeyan (3.40pm local time, April 4) — are taking part.
Other observatories include the Kepler Mission, the Hubble Space Telescope, and the IceCube Neutrino Telescope at the South Pole. A timetable is at: http://100hoursofastronomy.org/progr...vatory-webcast

This is about to kick off...

I asked Mike to give it a bump but no reply so far....
So here goes....<bump> thanks Matt BTW

Steve

Amletico · #3 04-04-2009, 11:29 PM

hello, I'm writing from Torino, Italy.
I do enjoy very much all the videos of "80 telescopes", but don't have enough time to look them all, at the moment.
Do you know if is possible to download them on the PC ?

C.S.

hilb · #4 05-04-2009, 03:09 PM

I went to watch some of this with the intention of just watching "some of this" and got addicted to it. It was fabulous. Had to go to bed in the end on Friday night (around 1.30am) as I needed to get some kip in preparation for the ASWA Public Viewing Night we were doing on Sat night (last night). Logged on again on Sat morn and got sucked in again. It was all I could do to drag myself away yesterday arvo to get up to Gooseberry Hill for the viewing night.

The video was available online at http://www.100hoursofastronomy.org/c...cast/webcast/6 but it looks like they've archived most of it. They are going to make a DVD of the highlights available at some point.

The webcast did have its technical difficulties though, they had so much traffic the email address crashed and they had to get a new one, plus they had to close the main 100 Hours site down while the 80 Telescopes event ran, and they tried to bring a mirror site up on the Saturday. It was very, very well watched!

The best fun was talking on the chat group while watching the live footage, you could talk to the astronomers right there in the observatories, and converse with hundreds of people from all over the world about astronomy (in about 12 different languages, too!), all in the one place.

Great event, really spectacular.

HilB...