Telescope design promises to revolutionize amateur astronomy

https://phys.org/news/2017-07-telescope-revolutionize-amateur-astronomy.html

by Santosh83 • 9 years ago

68 48 9 years ago

dperfect2• 9 years ago

Enhanced Vision produces extremely sharp, detailed images of even faint astronomical objects by accumulating their light and projecting it into the telescope's eyepiece.

So... it pretty much works the same way every other telescope works? I read the whole article, but couldn't find a single detail about how it can actually resolve better than other telescopes of its size.

The video shows an augmented reality overlay. If that's what it's all about, then I'm really not impressed (if I wanted to see images other people have taken, I wouldn't be using a telescope). Let's hope that's not what they're referring to when they say "Our compact 4.5-inch telescope allows observers to see objects fainter than Pluto."

kevin_thibedeau• 9 years ago

I read it as image stacking and an electronic viewfinder. Presumably B&W only.

samsnelling• 9 years ago

I didn't read it that way, but that makes perfect sense. I don't really see another way they can sell it for less than $1k as the article indicated.

dperfect2• 9 years ago

Ah, that does make more sense, though you'd think they could mention it if that's what they're doing :)

mhb2• 9 years ago

Their eyepiece images show color: http://www.unistellaroptics.com/en/blog

madaxe_again2• 9 years ago

I think that all they've done is integrate a CCD with automated stacking into a newtonian.

I wouldn't exactly call this revolutionary, as amateur astronomers have been coupling cameras (film then CCD) to telescopes for a century - but if it makes viewing DSOs more accessible to junior-amateurs at a good price point, then that's no bad thing.

I've just replaced my entire astronomy setup as the mount was getting old and cranky, and it has involved ordering about 40 distinct pieces of kit, with a lot of knowledge required, so I can certainly see the appeal in a push button solution for casual observers.

nayuki• 9 years ago

Enhanced Vision produces extremely sharp, detailed images of even faint astronomical objects by accumulating their light and projecting it into the telescope's eyepiece. Enhanced Vision technology mimics the light gathering capability of significantly larger reflector telescopes
Our compact 4.5-inch telescope allows observers to see objects fainter than Pluto and achieve sensitivity equivalent to a one-meter telescope!

These claims are impossible for a direct-view optical telescope. But do they imply that they are accumulating photons on an image sensor and showing the image to the observer electronically - basically long exposure photography?

On a side note, the web page hijacks clipboard copying and inserts a source URL.

breck4• 9 years ago

Yes, looks like it's long exposure photography but with the resulting photos displayed in real time:

"Turn Light Amplification on and the system will use its low-light sensor to accumulate light through a series of short exposures. The resulting image is projected into the eyepiece as the accumulation occurs, which means that once you start Light Amplification, you’ll see something, but the object will keep improving with time."

Pretty neat idea.

CydeWeys11• 9 years ago

That doesn't seem particularly revolutionary to me though. You can already do this with existing software used for image-stacking, though not directly through a viewfinder (though the "viewfinder" on a real telescope designed for astrophotography should be a computer display anyway).

jbmorgado• 9 years ago

Well, I'm guessing it will have something similar to the digital viewfinder you see in modern cameras.

If you use that together with a medium range camera and some basic computing (or dedicated chip) to stack and remove noise from images, what they are claiming seems doable, as long as you are under good astronomical observation conditions.

alkonaut• 9 years ago

Here is a FAQ:

Q: isn't this physically impossible? Surely it has to be based on EVF with Stacking/Long exposure?

A: well of course.

mhb2• 9 years ago

Slightly more information: http://www.unistellaroptics.com/en/product

tbabb• 9 years ago

This is an ad. What's it doing here?

mcshicks• 9 years ago

A few years ago I saw a project to 3d print high end telescopes using smart phones to process the image at a maker faire. It was an open source design, I think this one

http://www.openspaceagency.com/ultrascope/

For myself although I'm not an amateur astronomer I think I would be more interested in something I could make/tinker with myself.

CydeWeys11• 9 years ago

As someone who has built his own telescope and been somewhat involved in amateur astronomy, this sounds like marketing bullshit to me. It reads like a press release. The first bullet point is especially damning; it's pure marketing speak devoid of any substance. Aperture diameter matters -- that's the total amount of light available. It's why when you want a better telescope, you go bigger. There's no way around that.

Bullet point #2 is nothing special; it's just using GPS for location and a clock to automatically point your telescope at a specific object. This has been around for a long time.

Bullet #3 appears to be talking about image-stacking, which, again, is a technique already commonly employed -- put your telescope on a computer-controlled equatorial mount, take many 30 second exposures (typically the max allowed by a DSLR) over the course of hours, and combine them in software. And I seriously doubt that you can get much utility out of stacking images taken by different telescopes in different viewing conditions.

madaxe_again2• 9 years ago

Aperture isn't just the amount of light, but also resolving power. A small aperture with a long exposure might show you a DSO, but probably at >arcsec resolution.

But - this makes it accessible. I don't think you can say the same for pixinsight, dss, phd, etc. - there's a fair old learning curve to do it the proper way.

CydeWeys11• 9 years ago

Yes, making the features easier to use is always a good thing of course, and many a company has become a successful player in its field not by inventing new things but by making existing things more accessible.

What I don't like about the press release is that it makes it sound like they've come up with all these new revolutions in astronomy, which near as I can tell they haven't done at all.

ttyl0125• 9 years ago

About #2 - I think the 'new' part they're touting here is no longer needing to ensure the telescope knows exactly where north and the horizon are. In other words, given a known location from GPS and some images of stars from the builtin camera, it'd be possible to calculate in which direction (az/el) the telescope was pointing. Is there a general term to describe this sort of thing?

CydeWeys11• 9 years ago

Self-calibration? Automatic alignment? Real astronomical telescopes have been doing that for forever, even by hand since before computers existed. A compass is just never accurate enough (and magnetic north isn't a constant besides).

And yes, there are telescopes already available in the thousands-of-dollars range that calibrate themselves by combining data from GPS, the time, and sightings of a few specific stars. See e.g. http://www.celestron.com/university/astronomy/skyalign-(us-p...

Jedd2• 9 years ago

Aperture diameter matters -- that's the total amount of light available.

I think the point is the implied 'at that instant' which can be appended to your statement. Aperture matters in the context of a specific shutter speed.

You allude to that 'aperture is everything' loophole in your comment on bullet point #3, about image stacking.

CydeWeys11• 9 years ago

It also matters for resolving power though. You can take photos using a 1 m telescope with a one second exposure that you could never take using a 10 cm telescope at any exposure length. Keep stacking the photos for years, you're still not going to get the same detail.

This is why the latest generation of land-based optical telescopes have truly mind-boggling apertures. Bigger is better in astrophotography, full stop. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extremely_Large_Telescope

agumonkey2• 9 years ago

Out of curiosity, have you ever made your own mirrors/lenses ?

CydeWeys11• 9 years ago

I have ground my own primary mirror, yes. Even wrote a series of blog posts on it a long while ago: http://www.cydeweys.com/blog/tag/amateur-telescope-making/

ricardobeat• 9 years ago

Apparently it does the equivalent of image stacking in "real time" as you look through the electronic viewfinder - no new tech involved, but a big win in cost/complexity nonetheless.

maxerickson• 9 years ago

It literally is a press release:

http://www.seti.org/seti-institute/press-release/seti-instit...

Much or all of the content on phys.org is press releases pulled from science related institutions.

barns-n-moguls• 9 years ago

Advertisement for a toy, accidentally posted on wrong website.

simonh2• 9 years ago

Alright so according to many comments high end telescopes costing thousands of dollars already have such features, or it possible to combine different products and systems to do the same thing. Fine.

The article isn't claiming anything unique, other than providing this as a single integrated product at an unprecedentedly affordable price. Is that wrong? I honestly don't know. The way I read all the negging I'd assume there are already products just like this at similar prices. Are there?

I honestly don't know. Just asking.

tkahnoski2• 9 years ago

Quick search on Amazon seems to reveal some results.

I am the target market for this. I recently rented a cabin that had a standard telescope and although I knew exactly where Jupiter was it still took me 20-30 minutes to line it up just right. 5 minutes later a cloud moved over it. No one else got to enjoy it.

I need something pre-assembled, easy to use, and at or below $1k. Although I could deal with some assembly, this is not something I want to have to troubleshoot when the sky is clear and the urge to stargaze strikes)

DanBC• 9 years ago

There are plenty of options. Here's one: https://www.amazon.com/Celestron-Nexstar-Schmidt-Cassegrain-...

DuaneSand• 9 years ago

Real-time image stacking can also subtract out light pollution. Imagine seeing the full width of Andromeda, 6 moon widths across, above suburban school grounds even on moonlit evenings. This will be an exciting way for kids to encounter astronomy.

freerobby• 9 years ago

I've spent the last several months building a platform to solve problems #2 and #3 with a (mostly) software-based approach. The controller is built on a Raspberry Pi, and it can control any servo-controlled mount or camera that is supported by OSS tools like Open Sky Imager, PHD Guider, etc.

I think this is preferable to a pure hardware approach because people can use their existing equipment, and they don't have to make a major upfront investment in something proprietary. The initial cost (for the controller) should be under $100.

My goal is to make astronomy more accessible to folks without deep pockets or STEM backgrounds, and to increase the pace at which we make discoveries in outer space. If anybody's interested in contributing to this project, or participating in the beta, please drop me a line (@freerobby on Twitter, or robby@freerobby.com).

More about my thinking, motivations, and plan can be found here: http://astroswarm.com/2017/02/12/making-space-easy-to-study....

Giorgi• 9 years ago

Soo... anything about price or ETA?

veli_joza• 9 years ago

Right in the article. Crowd-funding starts this Fall, for "less than $1000".

Telescope design promises to revolutionize amateur astronomy

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