BU Research – Night Shift: Liu Astronomical Observing Center gives astronomers local access to telescopes worldwide
Kate Becker of the BU Research team joins IAR graduate student Paul Dalba, Assistant Professor Phil Muirhead, and Astronomy major Sheila Sagear in the new Liu Astronomical Observing Center.
‘Modern astronomy looks a lot different from its popular depiction. Instead of squinting into a telescope eyepiece beneath a creaky old dome, today’s astronomers work at computers, scanning data coming in from sensitive cameras that sit at the tail end of the telescope’s optical system. This is fly-by-wire astronomy, and while it may lack some of the romance of the old way, it opens up the possibility of “remote observing”—that is, using a telescope while sitting hundreds or even thousands of miles away. For more than a decade, taking advantage of high-speed internet and computerized telescope control, astronomers have increasingly been choosing to observe from afar, sparing the expense and hassle of far-flung travel.
Thanks to a special partnership, BU observers typically get about 40 nights each year on the DCT, which is run by the Lowell Observatory, and a growing share of that research is done remotely. But until 2015, BU lacked a dedicated space for remote observing—astronomers typically ran the telescope from their office computers or even from home.’
Read the rest of the article here: https://www.bu.edu/research/articles/liu-astronomical-observing-center/