Charting a path from cyberspace to deep space, an Ohio university has created a robotic telescope that Web users will be able to access to take snapshots of far-off stars and galaxies.
"This is going to put the amateur astronomer in the regime of the professional," said Earle Luck, chairman of the astronomy department at Case Western Reserve University, which owns the telescope. "You could take a picture of Jupiter, or parts of the Orion nebula, or anything that strikes your fancy."
The robotic telescope, due to go online 15 December, is housed at the Nassau Station near Cleveland, and has a diameter measuring 36 inches, which makes it the largest telescope available over the Web. There are other robotic telescopes, such as the Bradford Robotic Telescope and UC Santa Barbara's Remotely Operated Telescope, but Luck said they are not designed for the general public.
Luck is currently designing the software which users will be able to download to view the images that are captured by the telescope. He expects the site to be debugged and fully operational in April, at which time people will be able to submit requests and have them processed overnight. The system should be able to handle about 120 pictures per night.
The images taken from the telescope are limited to a patch of sky about 2 arc minutes by 3 arc minutes -– the equivalent of a few craters on the moon, although the moon is too bright to see using this telescope. The field of view is just right, however, for deep sky objects, such as globular clusters and distant galaxies. These groups of stars were some of the original objects formed in the galaxy, said Luck, and "look spectacular in the telescope."
In the future, the Web site will be equipped to help astronomers in the study of spectroscopy -- the physical processes associated with astronomy -- so they can determine the chemical composition of stars, or how fast a galaxy is moving.
"This is a way to get the general public interested in science and technology," said Luck. "They can learn something with it, and get a better appreciation for what we do."
