Category: Science & Tech

Uninteresting maths experiments, more to do with relation to sound.

Observing With NASA: Remotely controlled telescopes which YOU can use!

There is no doubt that the sky is an amazing piece of art. When you look up at the sky in a clear and dark location, the sight of hundreds of stars can literally take one’s breath away. What’s amazing is that in the spaces between the stars and planets lurk more things than you can imagine – nebulae, galaxies, even more stars, and who knows what else which has yet to be discovered!

Have you ever wanted to use a telescope or take photos of celestial objects, but never had access to one? Find out more about Harvard’s Observing With Nasa (OWN), a website which allows you access to remotely controlled robotic telescopes, and see what kind of photos you can produce!

Introduction

(You can skip this section if you’re impatient, although it must be said that [amateur] astronomy is generally not for the impatient!)

There is no doubt that the sky is an amazing piece of art. When you look up at the sky in a clear and dark location, the sight of hundreds of stars can literally take one’s breath away. What’s amazing is that in the spaces between the stars and planets lurk more things than you can imagine – nebulae, galaxies, even more stars, and who knows what else which has yet to be discovered! Of course, this is when you should break out the telescope, but alas, most people have many obstacles to deal with. Things such as city light glare, bad weather, lack of a telescope, lack of knowledge regarding the skies, and lack of time are just a small part of a long list. However, if you have ever had the chance to look through a telescope at the majestic Jupiter or Orion Nebula (to name two out of millions!), you will no doubt want to share the exciting sights with your friends.

Recently, I became interested with all things up in the heavens, and took a course in Celestial Navigation. It was here that I got my first sights through a good telescope, and spent a great many long nights enduring the cold nights and waiting for the right moment to catch a glimpse of star clusters, planets, and galaxies. While I wish my friends would have the same opportunity, I know that not everyone will have access to a nice telescope, nor have the time nor effort to spend.

Observing with NASA (OWN)

Without further ado, here’s the link: http://mo-www.harvard.edu/OWN/

Thanks to some people (including my professor who taught me Celestial Navigation) who realized that telescopes were not something easily accessible to most people, they set up a number of remotely controlled robotic telescopes which can be controlled over the internet. Now, anyone who has an email address can submit a request online so that one of the telescopes will snap a photo of a celestial object (the list of available objects are predefined)

Thus, if you wanted to observe Jupiter, you could simply submit in a request for Jupiter, and your photo will be taken! It’s a great start in learning how telescopes work and in observing the sky. Of course, the results may not be what you expect–for instance, there may have been a cloudy sky when the telescope took your photo. Or more likely, you’d be disappointed with the results which don’t look like those you see on NASA’s websites.

Now, you could simply live with those results, or you could go on and learn a bit of image processing. The difference between an unprocessed image and a processed one is massive, although it does require quite a bit of work!

Here’s an example of what a single unprocessed* image from the telescope may look like:


*Even this image is not completely ‘unprocessed’–its levels have been adjusted appropriately

Doesn’t look too good, does it? (Actually, I find that even unprocessed, the photo is amazing–since you’re looking at a whole other galaxy, TWO in fact!) However, with perseverance, you can stack multiple images on top of one another, and do a bit more processing. To me, this is a very rewarding experience–taking something which was invisible in the sky and seeing its beauty. Here’s the same object after processing:


Whirlpool Galaxy (M51a), two interacting galaxies

Of course, don’t expect it to compare to a photo taken by NASA using the Hubble telescope!

(Link to full photo hosted on Wikipedia. WARNING: VERY LARGE PHOTO – 71MB in size!!!)

The point is–you can take and create your OWN photos! So, if you’re someone who’s always wanted to take some photos of celestial objects in the sky but never had the chance to do so, here’s your opportunity! So enjoy, and may you discover wonderful things in the sky above!

Some of my photos

Here are some of the photos I’ve processed using OWN, in addition to the Whirlpool galaxy shown above. Keep in mind that many of these are the result of many photos taken over a whole month!

Andromeda Galaxy (M31), our closest galactic neighbor:

Sculptor Galaxy (NGC253), also known as the “silver coin”

The Sun, the nearest star. Of interest are the black sunspots.

Do you wear a watch?

Sitting in a bus, or a train, or even walking about the streets is always a good opportunity to take a look at other people and to see if they are wearing a wrist watch. Ok, I don’t actually do that often, but it is always an interesting experiment to perform. I’ve recently heard arguments that [wrist] watches are no longer needed, that they are a thing of the past. People will now take a look at their phones to see what time it is, or glance at a clock on the wall. However, I think watches are still relevant in these modern days. Here’s why.

My watch!

Sitting in a bus, or a train, or even walking about the streets is always a good opportunity to take a look at other people and to see if they are wearing a wrist watch. Ok, I don’t actually do that often, but it is always an interesting experiment to perform.

I’ve recently heard arguments that [wrist] watches are no longer needed, that they are a thing of the past. People will now take a look at their phones to see what time it is, or glance at a clock on the wall. Granted, those are both reasonable ways to get the time, but to me, they compliment wearing a watch, rather than replacing it.

I myself have gone through various phases – I remember that I would wear my watch compulsively as a child, and set it every day to the radio. I would then know exactly to the second when the school bell would go off. Perhaps this was to know when I would be done with a boring class, or be free to go home, and in a way, it was pretty fun! In my teens, though, I stopped wearing a watch, although I can’t remember the reason. Perhaps it was because I lost my watch.

However, at some point or other, one will always need to know the time. When I went traveling for 2 months in 2008, I decided to start wearing a watch again. At first, it was actually annoying to wear it, and I always couldn’t wait to take it off. However, I decided to keep wearing it. After a while, I got used to it and since then, always wear one.

In the Fall 2010 semester, I decided to take a class on Celestial Navigation, and it was here that I really realized the advantage of using a wrist watch. I decided to make a list of why one should wear a wrist watch (My points generally refer to a digital wrist watch, but analog wristwatches still have uses), and here it is:

  • A watch is a simple device which won’t fail easily. If you kept up with the news, you may have heard about various glitches in the iPhone which caused its alarms to go haywire during the DST change and the New Year. Now, there are basic watches and fancy watches, but the vast majority of them are simple devices which perform a few tasks, and perform them well.
  • A watch will last a long time. How often do you change your computer, or your phone? Probably a lot more often than you’ll change your watch (as long as you don’t lose it). A watch will continue to do its task 10 years from now the same as it does it right now. That’s real value!
  • A watch is durable. Even the cheapest of watches can last a long time, and most of them can survive being dunked in water, taken for a swim, or a fall to the ground. You can’t say the same of most phones.
  • A watch has a long battery life. Ever gotten frustrated because your phone ran out of juice? While phone battery life is generally measured in hours or rarely, days, a watch has its battery life generally measured in years! For example, my cheap watch is supposed to last 10 years.
  • A watch is convenient to look at. You don’t have to take something out of your pocket, but you just glance at your arm. There are situations when the usage of phones is frowned upon, since people may not know you’re just checking the time. Further more, you don’t have to press a button to turn on / light up the screen to see the time (unless it is dark, of course)
  • A watch has a known accuracy. If you use your watch often, you will eventually know whether it’s fast or slow. For example, I know my watch gets fasts by one second every week, but anyway, I set it every week. Meanwhile, if you rely on some clock on the wall, you don’t know if it’s accurate! (Of course, most phones are able to synchronize themselves, which can be an advantage or disadvantage) There are cases where you need to know the time very accurately, especially if you are using it for navigation. (A watch which is 4 seconds off can result in your navigation being a mile off!)
  • A watch immediately tells you the seconds. Most phones won’t tell you the seconds, unless you launch a dedicated application to show it.
  • Cheap watches function arguably just as well as more expensive ones

Given the cheapness of watches these days, personally, I feel that there’s no reason not to wear one. Perhaps some people think it’s ugly, and I can’t say anything about that, but I know that there are a lot of fancy “fashion” watches around. Others feel that it’s uncomfortable, and that’s fair enough – it can be weird having something around your wrist all the time, but I say – try it for at least 2 weeks and only then if it’s still uncomfortable, take it off.

I don’t know, maybe there are valid reasons for not wearing a watch. Please feel free to let me know if you have one!