Australian sites for Remote Access

[Glenn Dawes]

Hi one and all,

I was looking at Brad Moore's astro site and was interested in his ability to allow people to log onto his observatory, via a web browser, and take astro images. Does anyone know of any other sites in Australia like this? Pls. include commercial ventures (like Brad's), non profit or even professional sites who at least might allow one to passively observe what they are doing?

Regards

Glenn

PS. I thought you might like to know why the drought has broken in Sydney, its because I was lined up to do a sky tour tomorrow night for a Scout group! I was interested to learn three of the parents were bringing along their scopes. When I was told about this I said great, it would be good to divide the group and have others show the kids around. I was then told the only reason they were bringing them was for me to show them the sky - they don't have a clue. A bit sad when you think about it!

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

the only reason they were bringing them was for me to show them the sky - they don't have a clue.

I know what you mean Glen. I've done my share of public sky nights and have had people turn up with their scopes so I could show them not only the sky, but how to set their scopes up so they can use them. And I'm not talking about newbies, but people who have had scopes tucked away in their cupboards, often for years. I don't mind as long as it doesn't take too long and keep me away from the main purpose of the night, but I do find it sad that they haven't been able to find out how use their scopes before this.

And 99% of the time they are those shonky little EQ1s. Those things should be banned.

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Some people buy a scope and think all they have to do is look through it. It's a bit of a shock when they find out there isn't any signposts up there to tell them what they're looking at.

[seeker372011 (Narayan)]

Glen:

Bradfield Robotic Telescope is not Australian but anyone can sign up and take pictures remotely. Minimal control and options though. Still plenty of processing input possible to make the image your own. Its free. and fun on a rainy day though gratification is not instant-you submit a job and wait your turn.

The Fawkes telescope-Australian arm is yet to come on line I think, although the Canary isles scope is functional. ..mainly meant for schools but sometimes clubs are allowed access. I believe individuals also can access this telescope -costs UK Pounds 60 per hour from memory. Allows lots more control and I have seen some very good images already from this set up.

narayan

[iceman (Mike)]

PS. I thought you might like to know why the drought has broken in Sydney, its because I was lined up to do a sky tour tomorrow night for a Scout group! I was interested to learn three of the parents were bringing along their scopes. When I was told about this I said great, it would be good to divide the group and have others show the kids around. I was then told the only reason they were bringing them was for me to show them the sky - they don't have a clue. A bit sad when you think about it!

I was due to take my son's scouts group up to Koolang Observatory tomorrow night, but since we only have 1 scout leader at the moment, it's not allowed

[gary]

Originally Posted by Glenn Dawes

Hi one and all,

I was looking at Brad Moore's astro site and was interested in his ability to allow people to log onto his observatory, via a web browser, and take astro images. Does anyone know of any other sites in Australia like this? Pls. include commercial ventures (like Brad's), non profit or even professional sites who at least might allow one to passively observe what they are doing?

Hi Glenn,

Grove Creek Observatory has a relationship with the Wheaton College in
Massachusetts whereby students can access the observatory via the Internet.
See http://www.gco.org.au/wheaton/index.htm

Best Regards

Gary Kopff
Mt. Kuring-Gai

[GCO (Closed)]

Originally Posted by Glenn Dawes

Hi one and all,

I was looking at Brad Moore's astro site and was interested in his ability to allow people to log onto his observatory, via a web browser, and take astro images. Does anyone know of any other sites in Australia like this? Pls. include commercial ventures (like Brad's), non profit or even professional sites who at least might allow one to passively observe what they are doing?

Regards

Glenn

Hi Glenn,

Long time, no see :-)

We now have a public internet system with 2 telescope available for everyone. The Wheaton Project is only for a university in the USA and for students and faculty only. Our public service is a fraction of the cost of some of the commerical ones out there. Check it out at:
www.gco.org.au/skylive/

You will find a lot of Australians on there (there is a live chat box with live previews comming from the telescopes) but be prepared for some Italian only speaking users, as the Skylive service is in Italy. They have 4 telescopes there and 2 at Grove Creek (12" LX-200 and 14" C14) - with more to come as we get more members. It is only 100 euros/year for unlimited shared use. Good value.

Steven.

[Gama]

Try this site, they have a live view of the current images being download. Click up top on "Live Images" http://www.global-rent-a-scope.com/ , theres a few scopes and even from Australia too.

Have fun.


Theo

[higginsdj]

There are a few sites with the capability but not the willingness to make it publicly available!

[GCO (Closed)]

Hi David,

This is what we are trying to do. I certainly can't compare our small operation to some of the very large commerical operations currently running, even though some of them have bigger telescopes and more pixels than us. Our largest telescope is only a 16" SCT. Mind you, we are getting some staggering images from the C14 at Grove Creek via it. Larger telescopes and bigger CCD cameras will come as our membership grows.

However, the ENTIRE idea behind SkyLive and Grove Creek Observatory, is to provide a community remote telescope operation *AT COST*, simply for the reward of the enjoyment of others. The small yearly membership fee just goes to cover the costs of running it and everyone involved (including myself, if I may say) doesn't pocket a cent out of it. When we have a few bucks left over, we put that towards new filter sets and more upgrades, so the balance of funds is always nearly zero :-)

I suppose the point that I am making here is that new technologies certainly allow people without any high-end telescope and/or imaging equipment to do high-end astronomy from the comfort of thier home PCs. However, this same trend has also turned our hobby into somewhat of a highly commerical system. I'm certainly not knocking this, if people want to spend that much, then fine but we are going to provide an alternative.

Plus the fact, we had little choice to do this with my declining health and problems I had running public tours anymore. At least THIS way, Grove Creek Observatory is more accessable to everyone, rather than a few people that used to book a week every month to stay with us for visual astronomy - we can now bring the southern skies to a much larger auidence.

THAT is Grove Creek's mission and always has been - to share the southern skies under mag 7.4 skies and has been such, since 1986 - whatever direction of the technology of our lovely hobby takes us :-)

Please see:
www.gco.org.au/skylive/

Steven.