Saturday, December 20, 2008

Countdown to the International Year of Astronomy: The Racine Connection

I have mentioned before that 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy to celebrate 400 years since Galileo's Observations. Yesterday, our local NBC station aired a piece on IYA and interviewed a couple of my colleagues (I did the set design...most of the props you see came from my office and I was sitting just off camera as this was filmed). You can watch the piece here.


You see Steve Pompea talk about the Galileoscope. This is where I am going to break a little news about your local Racine connections to this project (I am not revealing any big secrets here since all names are on the web!) One of the people heavily involved in the design is Dr. Arion from Carthage College. Merit Models of Racine is the manufacturing partner in the project. The goal of the Galileoscope is to produce a low cost telescope that would show you everything Galileo saw (and to tell you the truth, the optics are better than what Galileo had to work with). That includes seeing the phases of Venus, craters on the Moon, moons of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn. The telescope will have some tool free assembly required so you can see how it works as you assemble it (I can assemble it in under 2 miutes).

I took the prototype they show off home last week and imaged the Moon. I didn't use a tracking mount, so I just pointed it at the Moon and let the Moon drift across the field of view. You can see the results below.


And I did not use the best camera to take this video...just a cheap webcam. I will post more info as the production ramps up.

I will blog more about IYA as time goes on. Next big event is the US opening ceremony on Tuesday, January 6th the AAS meeting in Long Beach. I will be there live and you can watch the webcast of the event...I will post a link closer to the ceremony.
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9 comments:

  1. AnonymousDecember 20, 2008 at 3:08 PM

    HB,

    Your posts are very interesting but can you do something about the a$$(*&le and his pawn shop?

    ReplyDelete
  2. kkditherDecember 20, 2008 at 5:45 PM

    Oh hale, very cool. You can actually see the craters on the moon with it.

    Now for the awwwww factor, and I truly mean it... You are my "way of connecting to the stars."

    Thanks for the posts and expanding my horizons! (upwards)

    ReplyDelete
  3. MinnesotaChickDecember 20, 2008 at 7:48 PM

    Very cool! That would make a neat screen-saver.

    ReplyDelete
  4. drewzepmeisterDecember 20, 2008 at 8:31 PM

    Astronomy always have interested me since I was a kid. So next year should be a good one. I'm looking forward to your future posts. Until then,I'll keep my eyes on the stars...

    ReplyDelete
  5. kkditherDecember 21, 2008 at 9:04 AM

    Hale, the KVOA news video auto-runs every time you load our home page. Would it be ok with you to link to the video instead of embedding it? Here is the link code:
    http://www.kvoa.com/global/video/popup/pop_playerLaunch.asp?vt1=v&clipFormat=flv&clipId1=3254043&at1=News&h1=News 4 at 4 - 2009 is the international year of astronomy

    ReplyDelete
  6. hale-boppDecember 21, 2008 at 11:28 AM

    Yeah, I looked at the code and can't figure out how to stop that annoying autoplay...I'm changing it.

    ReplyDelete
  7. kkditherDecember 21, 2008 at 12:11 PM

    Thanks, hale. The auto code feature must be built into the player. I looked at the code too, but couldn't find it either. Nothing against the guy, but after the 20th time of hearing his opening comment....

    ReplyDelete
  8. hale-boppDecember 21, 2008 at 1:36 PM

    Count yourself lucky...we get the ads on local television also to the point that I DO have something against the guy!

    I dropped them a comment about how annoying the auto play feature is and that I wouldn't be embedding their videos unless it goes away...see if i get a response.

    ReplyDelete
  9. OrbsCorbsDecember 21, 2008 at 9:04 PM

    Maybe Santa will bring me a telescope.

    ReplyDelete