October 1st, 2008 by
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Home Entertainment
We’ve seen home automation touchpanels used for some — shall we say, unorthodox — activities, but this is taking things to another level galaxy. Franklin, NC-based Dan Quigley has whipped up a way for his WiFi-enabled Crestron TMPC8X to actually control a giant telescope. Rather than manually getting the ’scope into the right position, he simply touches a button and watches it automatically check to see “if and when that object is viewable.” While he’s at it, he can dim the lights around him and check the local weather, and once a celestial body is in view, he can snap a photograph or have the system channel the image to any computer / TV. Suddenly, astronomy has become entirely more attractive.
[Thanks, Chuck]
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Posted in Telescope, TouchPanel, home automation, HomeAutomation, astronomy, Crestron, stargazing, stars, TMPC8X | No Comments »
August 18th, 2008 by
Filed under: Digital Cameras, Peripherals
We’ve seen these zoom lens add-ons before. Now Brando’s slapped together this 6x “Telescope” for the iPhone 3G — a phone not exactly revered for its image quality. Just snap the unit to the back of the iPhone 3G and get to work. How good is it? About as bad as the $19 worth of optics within. Seriously, 19 bucks and available now.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Posted in brando, Telescope, lens, iphone 3g, Iphone3g, telephoto | No Comments »
July 7th, 2008 by
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
The folks at SETI@home have put out a desperate plea for the community to bust out those quill pens and start writing strongly-worded letters to congress persons. Apparently the Arecibo Observatory, the world’s largest radio telescope and SETI@home’s data source, is being threatened with some massive budget cuts. Given that a replacement for Arecibo won’t be online until 2020 at best, folks are understandably upset. Turns out Arecibo is also one of the best shots we have at detecting an earth-threatening asteroid before it’s too late and we have to sit through another Elijah Wood movie on the subject. You know what you have to do.
[Thanks, Brian]
Permalink | Email this | Comments
Posted in Telescope, aliens, arecibo, arecibo observatory, AreciboObservatory, radio telescope, RadioTelescope | No Comments »
May 29th, 2008 by
Filed under: Digital Cameras
Stellar photography seems like a wonderous thing: you and a loved one on a starry night taking beautiful images of the heavens — before making out. Unfortunately, anyone who has tried it knows it’s more often a frustrating exercise of fiddling with exposure and aperture settings on your SLR while it hangs precariously off the side of your telescope, held in place only by a flimsy adapter ring. The Imaging Source has a simpler option, a series of digital cameras designed for slotting into your scope like an eye piece, capturing the night sky at up to 60-minute exposures over USB or FireWire. The range starts at $390 for a monochromatic VGA model, going all the way up to $870 for color and 1280 x 960 resolution. Not cheap, but it’s probably a lot less than you paid for the equatorial mount on your new reflector.
[Via Picture Snob; thanks Jay]
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Posted in space, Telescope, astronomy, astronomy cameras, AstronomyCameras, imaging source, ImagingSource | No Comments »
May 23rd, 2008 by
Filed under: Digital Cameras
Don’t get too excited — that image you see to the right isn’t actually a transatlantic telescope. Rather, it’s a transatlantic broadband network “rounded off on each end with HD cameras.” Still, the 11.2- x 3.3-meter Telectroscope is a real marvel to look at, and it actually does enable viewers in New York and London to peer at each other in real-time. The creation will be on display and open to the public around the clock in both cities until June 15th, so if you’ve been meaning to ask for that dame’s hand in marriage but couldn’t afford the JFK - LHR ticket, why not set up a surprise meeting at the ’scope?
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Posted in New York, science, england, Telescope, london, NewYork, ny, Telectroscope | No Comments »
October 23rd, 2007 by
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
If you’ve been strangely itching to get a closer look at the Sun without totally ruining your eyesight, you can color yourself quite fortunate. The aptly-named Sunrise project is an international collaboration involving a number of institutions that have successfully sent a jumbo-jet sized balloon some 120,000 feet high with a solar telescope riding shotgun. The plan is to send the massive device on lengthy journeys beginning in 2009 “that will capture unprecedented details of the Sun’s surface,” and furthermore, it could enable scientists to launch instruments up for testing without having to strap them onto a rocket and consequently destroy their budget. Set to take flight in the summer of ‘09 from Kiruna, Sweden, the balloon is scheduled to “capture continuous images for a period of several days to as long as two weeks,” and no, you can’t buy a seat on this one.
[Via Physorg]
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Posted in solar, solar-powered, solar telescope, solar-power, SolarTelescope, Sunrise, Telescope | No Comments »
