On 26 Aug 2004 06:24:17 -0700, (hamed) wrote:

I think establishing a virtual observatory that can be controlled
remotely via internet is really fantastic. Is there any idea? What
kind of telescopes and from which company do you recommend? What kind
of CCD camera is more suitable? Most of the CCD cameras are exposed to
the object for a period of time but what should we do if we want to
observe a real time event like eclipse? What about the softwares and
motor drivers? What about the property of the network which transfers
the photos and information?

A "virtual observatory" would seem to be one where the data exists inside a
computer, and is presented to the user as if he were using a physical
observatory. Such databases are under development.

A "robotic observatory" or "remote observatory" is what I think you are talking
about. Many professional observatories are now robotic, and an increasing number
of amateur ones. They are readily built from off-the-shelf equipment and
software. In principle, they are fairly simple. In practice, most of the
complexity comes from the high degree of redundancy and security that needs to
be incorporated into all the moving parts to avoid damage.

There are at least two approaches to control. Where the observatory is
completely private, it can be controlled across a private network. I use this
method, with the control apps running on the user's computer and sending the
control signals for the instruments across the network. Where the observatory is
available to more users, it is generally best to incorporate all of the low
level control on some other server, and provide a simple interface to the user
whereby they simply define the details of their imaging session, and the remote
server handles the details. This approach is used in all the commercial robotic
observatories. In most cases the remote users access the control server via
Internet.

For viewing real-time events, it would only be necessary to include a piggyback
scope with a video camera.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com