I thought you'd like that. :') Sounds analogous to the large expensive systems that do the same thing. Imagine linking (via the web, perhaps?) a number of CCD scopes distributed over several states...
They do somethng similar with radio telescopes to image, say, the surface of Venus. In a few years they will have an optical array in orbit to start looking for earthlike planets.
"I thought you'd like that. :') Sounds analogous to the large expensive systems that do the same thing. Imagine linking (via the web, perhaps?) a number of CCD scopes distributed over several states..."
I read last week where astronomy has really changed over the years. it used to be that the astronomer stayed up all noght with his eye to the eyepiece making long exposure pictures. these days, the computers keep the telescopes aligned, the ccd optics take all the pictures, and with ultra high speed networks, transmit the pictures to the astronomers (note the s) all over the country in near real time. They use 45 MBPS, which allows very high density ccd optice to be used.
The astronomers sit in the warm office doing their thing.
It is amazing how computers have changed our lives.
When I started in meteorology (1960), it took 6 people 2 hours to work up a radiosonde flight, from start to finish. Just before I retired, it took one person about 1/2 hour to do the same thing. The computer did all the tracking, the number crunching, and when the balloon broke (yes, it sensed when the balloon broke), it transmitted the data to the proper people.