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The MicroObservatory Net

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2018

Kenneth Brecher
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy, Boston University, Boston MA, 02215, USA
Philip Sadler
Affiliation:
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA

Extract

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Beginning in 1990, a group of scientists, engineers and educators based at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) developed a prototype of a small, inexpensive and fully integrated automated astronomical telescope and image processing system. The MicroObservatory combines the imaging power of a cooled CCD, with a self contained and weatherized reflecting optical telescope and mount. A microcomputer points the telescope and processes the captured images. Software for computer control, pointing, focusing, filter selection as well as pattern recognition have also been developed. The telescope was designed to be used by teachers for classroom instruction, as well as by students for original scientific research projects. Probably in no other area of frontier science is it possible for a broad spectrum of students (not just the gifted) to have access to state-of-the-art technologies that allow for original research projects. The MicroObservatory has also been designed to be used as a valuable new capture and display device for real-time astronomical imaging in planetariums and science museums.

Type
Section One
Copyright
Copyright © 1996