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Live Telescope Webcam Tonight
Daniel Bowen writes "Tonight's Willow Brook Elementary School star party will have decidedly more technology in use than previous years. In addition to a fleet of telescopes and astronomers for the children, this year there will be a live webcam connected to a telescope, operated by Roane State college astronomers, and hosted by the University of Tennessee Sunsite. The telescope image will also be projected onto the outside wall of the gymnasium in a 50 foot diagonal image alongside a Starry Night sky map. With cooperation from the City of Oak Ridge, TN, all streetlights in the neighborhood will be turned off, giving the giant projections clarity from the school yard, and night vision a chance. For one night out of the year, this suburban elementary school soccer field should have a beautiful nighttime sky, and a chance to inspire hundreds of children."
What about every night?
SLOOH has been running for, what, more than six months now.
Clear, Dark Skies
Student: Mommy, why can't I look at the moon tonight?
Mother: The server got turned to slag after an afternoon Slashdotting, honey.
Student: It's just not fair!
Mother: I'm sorry dear.
When you get to hell -- tell 'em Itchy sent ya!
And SLOOH has special educational programs.
/. last august when my astronomy club was hosting our big annual Starfest?
I'm sorry for being a grump but, where was
We had thousands of people, and I played Dr. Science and made dry-ice comets for the kids. Oh, and we measured the size of the solar system with toilet paper.
Clear, Dark Skies
I've long wanted to build my own webcam with telescope for terrestrial use but wondered if vibration due to wind would mess up the image.
Are there practical guidelines for how to build outdoor webcams to help circumvent problems with vibration and, for that matter, wireless transmission back to computers within a few hundred meters?
"Provided by the management for your protection."
by which, I assume, you mean "day time" vibration shouldn't be a huge problem.
For stellar observations, where images might be built up over an hour or more, the mount usually costs more than the telescope - but for daytime use I'd suggest just using some masking tape to attach a webcam eyeball to your scope and see what happens.
For wireless - I'd look at the X-10 security cameras.
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Checking out your site right now. It would be nice if the pdf's where available in html. Looks like you're doing really fun stuff but it's hard to digest on your current site. If you want more traffic try a blog or make an overview page or two on the event with the best pics, clear links, and how to's on cool things like "dry ice comets" I'd love to try some of this with my kids. Thanks for sharing!
The fact that they're getting elementary school students involved with 'cool' science projects (visual astronomy is always cool) is a great way to stimulate scientific interest in these children. The US has problems with the current status of public schools, but this seems like a great step in the right direction.
One aspect that makes me particularly happy is that they've coordinated w/ the general community, to turn off the streetlights. This will make most community members feel involved in the project, even if only remotely. Many universities around the globe offer weekly or monthly public observatory hours, but few people make use of this or are even aware of it. But when you involve a community as a whole, people will notice. More neighbors might stroll over to see some interesting things in the sky, or even just become aware that there's a nearby telescope they never knew existed.
It might also encourage parents who would otherwise not really care about their child's education (unfortunately many parents think of school as free day-care), to ask some questions and maybe even encourage them a bit more. This move is definitely a good thing, and I really hope it works out well.
the point - but I appreciate the feedback.
I'll have to hassle the newsletter editor - I didn't realize the current newsletter (which should be HTML) was offline.
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...that it doesn't rain.
(Speaking as a telescope operator.)
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
The moon will be well up and very bright... they won't gain much from having the street lights off. They should have waited until a couple of day past the next new moon. Nonetheless, assuming it's clear, they'll see some craters on the Moon, Saturn and perhaps the Orion Nebula. I wish them all the luck in the world.
This sounds like it took an insane amount of coordination. Unfortunately, the weather forecast says partly cloudy tonight and rain the next three nights.
Does it include flying aircraft and a garage door that goes up and down? Can I turn the stars on and off with my mouse?
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
I see craters but they look like the moon though.
Pink tinge though, so could be somewhere else!
I'll see your Constitution and raise you a Queen.
There are thousands of such groups across the US, holding star parties just as big - or many times larger - and it's annoying to hear that one group, that isn't even doing anything that special, is being held up as some revolutionary.
/. to be at least slightly aware of the world of amateur astronomy.
Its annoying in the sour grapes sense, but also in that you would expect a group like
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