About MUEIT

Imagining“observe the stars with telescope”, you might image looking into telescope and searching starry sky at night. If you observe the Saturn twinkling in the night sky by telescope, you see the ring of the Saturn. You might be specially moved when you can see it. But telescopes are very expensive optical instruments, so it’s not easy for us to get them. For these reasons, Miyagi University of Education has operated the Internet Telescope since 2000 and the Internet Observatory as a new one since 2004.

A camera controlled by a computer is set at the place where astronomical telescope is . You can operate the telescope and the camera through the Internet from any place in the world. Just choose a star you want to observe, then the telescope will move and you can see the image of the star. You don’t have to care about the time and the place. The Internet astronomical observatory is really very convenient tool for celestial observation.

The System of MUE Internet Observatory

The figure below indicates the system of Internet Astronomical Observatory in Miyagi University of Education.

The mechanism is to access the computer to the computer on the roof of MUE through the Internet. Then move the camera and telescope that connected on the computer. In short, you can remote control the telescope and the camera from outside. For example, if you input the command move to the aim star to the telescope from your computer, the command will be sent to the computer on the roof through the Internet. Then telescope will be informed and it moves. The camera is set on the telescope. Your command can also be sent to the camera. In addition, you can watch the picture of the celestial bodies and take image of them, too. These pictures and image can be described at your computer.

Even if you live far away and the weather is bad, you can also observe the starry sky in Sendai if Sendai’s weather is good. Furthermore, if you were at foreign country, you can also take good advantage of time difference to observe Japan’s night sky in your daytime there. The Internet Observatory in MUE set up the Sliding roof which can be automatic opening and shutting, introduce the 30cm Reflecting telescope made by Takahashi Factory, use and free software and upgrade every year and so on. It continues to evolution. Our aim is to open the Internet Observatory in MUE to public in the future.

The System of Internet Astronomical Observatory：2018

Below is the system now.

Internet Telescope

The astronomical telescope and the equatorial telescope are made by Takahashi Factory and it becomes Newton reflected type telescope (aperture 300 mm and 1500 mm in binocular vision), EM-500. Compared with the telescope system before, the speed of introduce the heavenly bodies improved a lot and the waiting time of finish introducing the heavenly bodies become much shorter. In addition, Light-gathering power increased and it becomes easy to catch the feeble light. As it is Newton reflected type, you can hold down to minimum deterioration of the picture quality with chromatic aberration. So the heavenly bodies's image becomes clear.

Imaging Camera

As for astronomical telescope's figure camera, we can use the PC cameras (For examples, made by Phillips Co.To U Cam-Pro )which have been familiarized in the market. ＰＣ cameras are live cameras and used as TV phones and in the teleconferences through the internet. So compared with the special camera devices for taking heavenly bodies' images, it's much cheaper. It's good for observing the bright heavenly bodies' shape and colour which were introduced by textbooks. In addition, communication capacity can be held down and it has many merits of communication environment adaptability. As for the image, we can offer the free internet TV communication system soft wares ( like Yahoo! and Messenger) to users to use. In addition, now you can also watch the image by the homepage browse software. (To the link of live moon.)

Of course, you can also use the cooling CCD camera (SBIG Co.ST-7) for celestial image. But as the image was expressed as grey scale, it's much suitable for people who have science purpose than those who used as education purpose.

Control System

１．the Control System of telescope according to The Sky

The celestial telescope's control is operated by the remote control which use the software The Sky (Software Bisque Co.), IA server （software Bisque Co.) in the remote communication. Not only the serve, we also have to introduce the software in the client.

２．the Application of Windows XP Pro's "Remote Desktop Function"

Output the serve's image to the client side according to the Remote Desktop Function. The PC in client side looks like that they connected directly with celestial telescope and celestial taking image devices and can control them. We don7t have to buy any software in the client side. The advantage is from managing the password for access, it can be used well. Compared with the communication software like IA server and Yahoo! Messenger, the load falls on the circuit.So it's just possible to use over some Mbps in the communication speed.

Like we talked above, it's necessary to change the system structure more flexible according to everyone's internet environment. If someone wants to use it, please let us know first. We will offer you the system structure according to your purpose.

As the reference materials, we attached the PDF files below.

Reference Materials

the Experiment about Space held in the Classroom—２：the Structure of Internet Telescope System and Application in the Education Spot.(2001)From MUE's bulletin

the Experiment about Space held in the Classroom—３：the Examples of MUE's Internet Telescope Application(2002)From MUE's bulletin

Experiment about Space held in the Classroom—５：the Star Observation using MUE's Internet Telescope (2004)

the Examples of MUE's Internet Observatory's application(2003)From the article in the astronomical monthly report