Re: [Utah-astronomy] SLAS working capital - what to do with it? A suggestion
I'd consider myself a light to moderate member, and I think I agree with the general sentiment expressed by Kurt and Chuck. The thing I like about southern and central Utah is going there, seeing it, camping in it and being with a friendly group of fellow astronomers. If I wanted to use a robotic scope, I'd probably just hop on slooh.com or join one of the many survey groups going over material from one of the historic surveys. I think Chuck's right about the maintenance. I've observed that there's almost nothing in central Utah that's not been decorated with bullet holes. I'd think a little dome might be an irresistable target for a particular class of bonehead. Personally I enjoy having places like Bryce, Capitol Reef and the new opportunity at Great Basin. Patrick, Kim and many others have done a lot of work to open these places up for us. We get to enjoy really dark skies at the cost of a tank of gas and a little show-and-tell. Of course there's no real research going on, but those who have research inclinations seem already to have invested in that little shack out back. Michael
--- Michael Carnes <michaelcarnes@earthlink.net> wrote:
I'd consider myself a light to moderate member, and I think I agree with the general sentiment expressed by Kurt and Chuck.
I'm in principle for the club adopting a robotic scope as a new project - whether as a SLAS alone project or in cooperation with Clark, the UofU or, I believe, USU was mentioned at the meeting. Considering increasing light pollution and rising gas prices, internet access to robotic scopes is the future of public outreach - particularly for outreach to Utah school children. It's not the same as sitting under a southern Utah or even an Uinta sky, but for many Utah kids, it is going to be their most practical route of access. My main feeling goes to over-extension of club resources - that SPOC should be fully completed and fully reserve funded. That way the considerable talent in the club (which ain't me) can focus on a single new project. That is in no way to suggest that a robotic scope project isn't a worthy one and should not be considered and undertaken using club resources. The trade-off is that if you use the current working capital to fund a SPOC reserve now, then you have a waiting period in which the club does more revenue generating activities in order to build a pot to finance the next building project. Along these lines, one of my main objectives out at SPOC over the next few months is to try a lunar web-cast as an experiment. I've slowly accumulated the hardware and software since last November. Now, if I can just figure out how to cold-boot the SPOC wireless router. -:) - Canopus56 P.S. - I'm not worried about the southern Utah "lead" stop-sign misquitos. I figure if you build a sod caretaker hut and just mail a bag of gorp and chew down there every couple of months, we can get Guy to relocate and do 24 hour "protection". __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
I'd have to disagree that robotic scopes are "the future" of public outreach. Hopefully, more efficient outdoor lighting, spurred-on by rising energy costs, will one day reverse the light pollution trend. And if not, then eventually no corner on earth will be remote enough anyway. Making more sense from an outreach standpoint, as well as light-pollution considerations, is a mobile observatory. You can take it to the masses, -or- take it to the dark sky. I'll volunteer my driveway to store it. ;) Be that as it may, a robotic scope is indeed a possibilty for a future effort- but not the near future. The current incarnation of SPOC is brand-new and it's capabilities haven't been even lightly explored. Tooele county seems to have a handle on light-pollution (perhaps BECAUSE of SPOC) so maybe the skies will remain OK for a while, at least to the west. Kurt's 100% right that properly funding SPOC should be the #1 priority. A new project need not be started right away. A few years isn't an unreasonable wait for the next big initiative, especially if a couple of other local institutions are going to build a robotic facility anyway. --- Canopus56 <canopus56@yahoo.com> wrote:
I'm in principle for the club adopting a robotic scope as a new project - whether as a SLAS alone project or in cooperation with Clark, the UofU or, I believe, USU was mentioned at the meeting.
Considering increasing light pollution and rising gas prices, internet access to robotic scopes is the future of public outreach - particularly for outreach to Utah school children.
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--- Chuck Hards <chuckhards@yahoo.com> wrote:
I'd have to disagree that robotic scopes are "the future" of public outreach. . . . Making more sense from an outreach standpoint, as well as light-pollution considerations, is a mobile observatory.
I see your point. Here's what the British are doing with considerable public and charitable funding: The Faulkes-Telescope Project http://www.faulkes-telescope.com/ Offered by the Faulkes Telescope Operations Centre, School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University, England, for robotically operated 2 meter telescopes in Hawaii. Billed as the "world's largest publically available robotic telescope." The interface and general website construction of Faulkes is the most advanced and user friendly that I have seen. http://kilo.ifa.hawaii.edu/faulkes/intro.jsp The Faulkes Telescope is one in a series of duplicate UK facilities around the world. http://www.astro.livjm.ac.uk/RoboNet/ - C __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
I believe that Faulkes is one of Rob's "neighbors" on the mountain...isn't it, Rob? --- Canopus56 <canopus56@yahoo.com> wrote:
Here's what the British are doing with considerable public and charitable funding:
The Faulkes-Telescope Project http://www.faulkes-telescope.com/
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participants (3)
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Canopus56 -
Chuck Hards -
Michael Carnes