A1 - Electronically Assisted Astronomy
My childhood telescope.
Introduction
One of my major fascinations and interests growing up was space. Watching Carl Sagan's series Cosmos, National Geographic articles and library books were my major input. Eventually, my parents bought a telescope.
Seeing the rings of Saturn for the first time was incredible, and a moment I remember vividly decades later. But setting up and using the telescope was more complicated than I was prepared for at that age, so it was poorly utilized.
Much later as an adult, I have become a science teacher, and during COVID I came across YouTube videos showing how the state of amateur astronomy had changed. Encouraged, I decided to get back into the hobby. Initially this was for personal reasons, but I was also curious to see how it could be incorporated into my professional work.
Similar to what I observed when young, I captured this image of Saturn decades later.
EAA
Advancements in computer and digital camera technology have completely changed amateur astronomy. Electronically Assisted Astronomy (EAA) has brought computer control of telescopes, assistance in finding and tracking objects in the sky and taking images. Not only does this offer tools to aid in the observing process, but new possibilities of photography the sky have emerged.
A major advantage of digital photography over film cameras is the ability to combine multiple images. In astrophotography, techniques are used to compare a large number of pictures, algorithmically separating the faint light of distant objects from random noise in the camera sensor. Stacking dozens or hundreds of photos, representing hours of viewing time, creates images with more distinct features and less background noise than was possible on amateur equipment before.
A telescope setup I began building as a science teacher. The red box on the front links with the telescope mount and the camera on the back, all controlled via a mobile app.
The range of technical applications is varied: smart phones that provide a simple location finding tool on a telescope, computer control for a more traditional telescope mount to add automatic tracking, focusing and imaging, to completely self-contained electronic telescopes. All of these use mobile technology as an interface, making the systems potentially very portable.
Beyond acting as an interface device, mobile devices add their own unique enhancements to astronomy. These are especially powerful in the ability to share and communicate with others, making these of particular interest for teachers.
Jupiter, as seen through the setup above.
Mobile Impacts
Using a mobile device to display the image from a telescope immediately makes it easier to share with a group of observers. Visual observing is challenging to accommodate all viewers: the position of the eyepiece is not always suitable for children or adults with mobility issues, and users must be careful to not disturb the telescope or the image is lost. In contrast, a tablet can easily be shown to viewers, and passed around without interfering with the setup.
One of the modern, self-contained "smart telescopes." All control and viewing has to be done via a mobile app.
Image Credit: ZWO https://www.zwoastro.com/product/seestar-s50/
It is also easy to become part of a community with EAA. Easily recording images makes sharing them effortless. Some products have community sharing and discussion features built into their applications.
When observing, individuals also have the ability to use devices to search for help and suggestions, dealing with challenges as they happen. This can help reduce potential frustration with the technical learning curve of astronomy.
The interface app for the ZWO Seestar. Besides device controls, weather and astronomical data are available to plan an observing session.
Part of the community features built into the Seestar app. Users can share their images, and can search by location of user or the nature of the object observed.
A live preview image. By taking more images, the contrast and colours in the final image are enhanced. These are viewed in real time as the total amount of data increases.
A completed photo, adjusted in an image editing program to enhance contrast and colour balance. This was taken from the balcony of my apartment.
Benefits
EAA technology can benefit amateur astronomers at a wide range of skill and experience levels, with multiple objectives.
For beginners, finding and observing or photographing an object can be reduced to a relatively simple and fast process. These early successes are not only rewarding in themselves, but can motivate someone to learn more about the astronomy, telescopes and imaging.
More experienced users may want to get into building more sophisticated and customized telescope setups, to focus on aspects of the hobby they enjoy most. The assistance of a central computer control can help them focus on learning and optimizing specific aspects individually. For example, a telescope with a higher magnification will require different techniques to track small objects, and the user can focus on learning this step while still having the ease of automatically finding the object’s position in the sky.
Experienced astronomers will be able to achieve increasingly complex goals, many of which are only feasible with computerized equipment. They may take multiple sets of images of a target using different filters related to the chemical emissions producing the specific light in deep sky objects, or build up mosaics of larger regions using a series of high resolution images.
Downsides
While astronomy is a very technical hobby, the degree of automation available can remove this from the experience, especially with self-contained “smart telescopes.” The options to go to an object and begin capturing an image can make the process feel more like using an app instead of controlling a telescope via an app. For a casual introduction to astronomy this may be helpful, but relying on this may mask the intricacies that many find a fascinating part of the hobby.
This is complicated by the reliance on digital cameras to produce images. While the final results are often outstanding, directly observing an object with the telescope is often not possible when it is set up for imaging; many smart telescopes do not have any capability for visual observing at all. This removes the unique experience of seeing an object with your own eyes. I still remember the first time I saw the rings of Saturn through a telescope as a child; while it was far from the detailed photos produced by NASA, it was a profound moment that stands out in my memory decades later.
Losing this direct experience can also make the process potentially underwhelming. Even the most advanced amateur telescope setup cannot compete with images from the James Webb Space Telescope, the Voyager probes or the Parker Solar Probe.
John Dobson, a proponent of amateur astronomy and homemade telescopes, argued against amateurs attempting to photograph the night sky; the efforts and cost would not come close to those of professionals.
Personally, I disagree with this perspective, although it is worth clarifying that changes in technology have made astrophotography a much less masochistic pursuit than it was previously. Still, there is something valid in his argument, that seeing the stars directly is more meaningful experiences than when we are separated by cameras and mobile phones from the actual sky. The balance of what is an authentic experience is blurred by these trends, especially when they enable opportunities that would not be available otherwise.
Image taken of a full moon. On another evening, my school hosted a viewing session to celebrate the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, as a cooperative event between the science and Mandarin departments
Education
Astronomy is something I’ve been eager to bring to my students in schools, but it is a logistically challenging ideal. First, unless working in a boarding school, most students will not be available during evenings to observe the stars. Setting up extracurricular meetings is possible, but further complicates things, especially as observing is highly weather dependent. Telescopes are expensive and fragile pieces of equipment, which is hard to justify given the limited opportunities to use them.
EAA is a potential aid to this. The ability to photograph on one telescope and share the results to many helps impact more students with a minimal set of equipment. In cases when students cannot attend an observation directly, they could prepare a plan for which objects to photograph and see the results the following day.
A relatively fast (20 minute) image test of the Horsehead Nebula. I plan to return to this in the future for a much longer session, to produce a more detailed image.
Citizen Science
Amateur astronomers have recently been able to participate more in citizen science projects. This opens up new ways to make the hobby engaging, create a sense of community and offer new skills to learn. When brought into a school context, these projects would be ways to make learning not only engaging but create a sense of contribution, taking an after school club to a more significant and involved level.
Here are two examples of citizen science that would be potentially available to students:
Amateur telescopes are not capable of observing planets around other stars directly, but they can help contribute to finding likely targets for observation by larger observatories. Basically, if a planet passes in front of a star, the intensity of light from the start will be reduced by a small but measurable amount. Careful analysis of data from an observation can offer evidence of such transits, which provides a case for more thorough investigation. Many individuals can thus help eliminate unlikely candidate stars, making the overall process of hunting for exoplanets more effective.
Image credit: NASA Ames Research Center
The recent total solar eclipse visible over Canada and the United States was a unique and memorable experience for many. It was also a chance for individuals to contribute data to projects to better understand the sun. The SunSketcher project used an app on mobile devices to take photos of the eclipse, leading to a better understanding of the precise shape of the sun.
Image Credit :P. Horálek/European Southern Observatory
Resources
John Dobson - Sidewalk Astronomer
Regardless of my criticism of John Dobson's attitude towards astrophotography, his work in promoting astronomy and amateur telescope making are very inspiring.
This guide describes how to incorporate a ZWO Seestar smart telescope into an outreach event. The ideas would be easily adapted to schools hosting an observing event for students or public.
I came across this site and the accompanying YouTube channel during COVID lockdowns. It details the modern approaches to amateur astrophotography, and was a major inspiration in my decision to return to the hobby.
ZWO appears to be one of the leaders in making cameras and other EAA equipment for the serious amateur market. Being based in China, I was also happy to see that the success of ZWO acts as a counter example to the common outside presumption of Chinese companies being derivative and lacking innovation
Certainly not the only one, but Cloudy Nights is a prominent online community dedicated to astronomy.
The discussions are not exclusive to EAA but the topic is well discussed. For example, this article on the homepage discusses the impact of affordable smart telescopes.
Combining EAA, community and the global aspect of the internet, numerous observatories provide telescopes that can be booked for individuals to use to collect data. This is an interesting option for teachers looking to expose students to astronomy but would have trouble due to cost and other logistical issues.