the night sky live project pi: robert j. nemiroff & the night sky live collaboration

The Night Sky Live Project

PI: Robert J. Nemiroff

& The Night Sky Live Collaboration

Web address: http://NightSkyLive.net People:

Faculty: Noah Bosch (Tel Aviv U.), Wellesley Pereira (Michigan Tech), J. Bruce Rafert (Clemson), John Oliver (Florida), Chris Impey (Arizona)Graduate students: Lior Shamir (MTU), Shet Tilvi (MTU)Undergraduate students (MTU): Dan Cordell, Vic Muzzin, Matt Merlo


Three General Objectives

Primary ScienceTemporal monitoring and archiving of entire visible sky down to visual magnitude 6. Search for meteors, unusual stellar variability, GRB OTs, comet variability, novae, supernovae, etc.

Support ScienceInstantaneous cloud monitors, archival cloud monitors, generate real-time all-sky opacity and skyglow maps

Education / OutreachShow your class last night’s (real) sky, archival skies, monitor meteor showers in real time, show educational sky movies, run educational modules


CONCAM Locations


Ten NSL nodes are currently deployed -- more are being built

Four of the Ten CONCAM locationsKitt Peak Mt. Wilson

Mauna Kea Wise Obs.


Easy & Inexpensive

Hardware: computerSoftware: web browserCost: freeNight sky coverage

angular: nearly completetime: always on 24/7

Image Cadence: 3m56sImage Depth: approximately human


Real Time Viewing allows...

Demonstrate what is visible from different parts of Earth right now

where is it: daytime, nighttime? where are the moon, planets, stars?

MeteorsView meteor showers in progress, during class time

CometsExample: What does Comet Machholz look like right now?


Near Real Time Viewing allows…

What did last night’s sky look like?At sunset?At sunrise?Movie: diurnal motion last night, annotated

How has Comet Maccholz changed recently?One month agoYesterday

Any good Geminids meteors caught last month?Toward which constellation do they point?

How was the night sky different last month?


Fisheye Images allow...

How parts of the sky relateHow inferior planets hug the horizonZodiacal light viewsTrace back of meteors to radiantComet tales


Time Lapse Sky Movies show...

Diurnal motionVariable star changesRetrograde motion of planets


Global Coverage allows...

Comparison of the same sky from different locationsAlways a place where it is nighttime to show your class


Learning Modules allow...In class collaborative learningHomework

Current modulesDiurnal motion

Variable stars

Modules includeshort hyperlinked lesson with NSL hyperlinks, images

a quiz with answers provided


Advanced Undergraduate

Using the photometry tablesTracking star brightness with altitudeTracking variable stars with time

Using the raw FITS imagescomputing raw photometric measures• stars, comets, meteors, satellite glints

finding cosmic rays

What was that?Problem solving with unknown image artifacts


Popularity

Already 1000s of page views nightlyAdvertising

Cloud monitor seen by astronomers that also teach Astro 101Unique images featured on APOD, already a resource for teaching Astro 101

Bulletin board fosters discussion


Support


the night sky live project pi: robert j. nemiroff & the night sky live collaboration

Documents