There was a time, not so long ago, when night skies were dark and clear and the stars were diamonds on a sea of velvet. Sadly, those skies are lost for most of us because of ever expanding cities and light pollution. The Constellations are all but invisible and the Messier objects that used to be visible in a 3 or 4 inch telescope are nothing but a “faint fuzzy.” We could become armchair astronomers, or, if we are really serious about seeing the things that we have lost, we can travel to a dark sky spot, which is difficult or impossible for most of us. Alternately, we can purchase a large and heavy telescope, a so-called light bucket.
Now, there is another alternative, Electronically Assisted Astronomy or Near Real Time Viewing. This does not mean traditional astrophotography. It does include video (analog) astronomy and near real-time (digital) viewing. As an added bonus, we have at our disposal small hand held computers that will accurately tell our telescope where to point. We have at our fingertips tools that were not available in even the best professional observatories just a few years ago. We will discuss EAA, concentrating on what I have tried and what works, what is easily available, and, look at what the future has in store for us.
Lawrence “Larry” Hoffman is a retired ophthalmologist. He got his first look through a telescope 70 years ago and has been hooked on Astronomy since then. In high school and college he attended meetings of the Detroit Astronomical Society and ground his first mirror, for an eight inch Newtonian, in a basement off of Second Avenue. He remembers when you could see the Milky Way from Broadstreet and Boston. Over the years he has had a wide variety of telescopes and mounts, strongly believing that you can never have too many scopes or too many mounts. He currently belongs to two Astronomy clubs in Michigan and two in Florida. His motto is, “When you stop learning you are dead. It’s just that nobody bothered to tell you.”
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The views expressed in presentations are those of the speakers and do not necessarily represent, and should not be attributed to, the Warren Astronomical Society.
