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Skylive.it a full remote controlled Telescopes by internet.


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hello,

i am pleased to annunce you that the Skylive Observatory , located in Etna Mountain in Sicily(Italy) is now full remotely controlled trought internet and available for users worlwide.

There are 3 telescopes usable easly by registered users :

1) Takahashi SKY90 APO refractor with CCD ST7XME and LRGBH filters.

2) VIXEN VISAC 8" with CCD ST10XME and RVBLI photometric filters.

3) MEADE LX200 12" with CCD ST7XME and RVBLI photometric filters.

To connect in real time with these telescope you have just to download and install the free program "SKYPROMEGA" downloadable

from the website http://www.skylive.it/skylive-new/home-eng.php

To use the program you have to register for free , to obtain your personal password.

This is the screenshot of the main program "SKYPROMEGA"

mainpanel2.jpg

To set the English language, go in the "setting" menu and after in "Lingua" , then click on the English flag.

Whit this advanced system you can do several things in astronomy, like if you are close the telescopes of the skylive observatory, and all in real time :

- Live images (updated every 7 seconds)

- Long exposure pictures (max 900 sec for each exposure)

- Real time preview of the taken photo

- GOTO and PHOTO sequence scriptable

- Possibility to use filters and binnig during exposures.

- chat with the staff and other users online.

and more...

This system has been used from Italian users for 6 years, and now has been translated in english for users in all the world.

For example USA users can do astronomy during daylight, when in italy is already dark... !!!

We cooperate with local astronomy clubs and with the U.A.I (Italian Union Astronomy) for research of variable stars,supernovae and asteroids.

this is the english version of the website : http://www.skylive.it/skylive-new/home-eng.php

(still under translation for same section)

If you need more information write to skylive@skylive.it or reply here.

I hope that you will enjoy with this system.

regards,

Ivan Bellia

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I can honestly say this is the dogs [removed word], and a very unique idea Ivan has put together, to allow real time control and viewing and photo imaging .

Logged in last night and had some excellent views of a couple of Messier,NGC objects.

Ok, i'm not paid up yet to actually control the scopes, that's 60 euros a yr, but i certainly am entertaining the idea.

Recommend you guys check it out :thumbright:

Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with this site, just seems a excellent way to perhaps get some viewing when the weather here is up the spout (isn;t it always! )

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Thank you cygnusx1 for your comment.

CH, there is no limit about the number of users connected at the same time on the SKYPROMEGA program.

And in ay case there is not queue because the live images and pictures taken in REAL TIME are shared, so one or hundred users connected is the same :D

In the annexed chat we are all friends (the most are italian, but some can speak english like me) that log in every night, at the beginning this was an Italian project, and now(after 6 years of experience and improvments) we are proposing this nice project out of Italy for evey astronomer in the world.

This is a no-profit project, with the only goal to share astronomy with everybody interested on, giving the opportunity to use high quality instruments, for enjoing or to perform astronomical research.

In fact we ask only 60 euros per year to give full remote control of the 3 telescopes(some similar projects ask 50$ per hour...) , just something to help us to improve the project, as already done in the past years.

So you are very welcome, and i will be pleased to make real time observation togheter with you.

It is like to do a start party every night, using a real telescope!!

See you this night on SKYPROMEGA after 21:00 (Italy time)

Ivan

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Akyra,

there is not "rotar basis" in the telescopes control, the controls are shared and we use the chat to organize the pointment and photos, i rememner you that the photo can be taken from a user and be viewed from all the other connected users.

I suggest you to login for free and try to see how this system is nice and easy to use.

I understand that it seems to be unveleable or someone think that is fake or similar... again try to beleave :D

Whiplash,

what means "kosher" ? sorry i am not able to translate it in italian.

The most of users are italian, you are right, this is because we are starting right now to invite english users too.

In any case as you saw in the chat, except me there are other users that can speak english, and just one hour ago there was 4 UK users... all in english :lol:

Anyway when i am logged, i will be pleased to help and chat with you there to observe togheter in real time.

ciao,

Ivan

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In any case as you saw in the chat, except me there are other users that can speak english, and just one hour ago there was 4 UK users... all in english :D

Anyway when i am logged, i will be pleased to help and chat with you there to observe togheter in real time.

ciao,

Ivan

Can vouch for that was one of the U.K users, and looks like a good site :lol:

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Just a bit example of what you can do remotely with this system :

this is the Pelican Nebulae, taken remotely last night with the telescope N.1 (TAkahashy SKY90 and CCD ST7XME) sum of 2 photos of 10 minutes each.

2007726111257_pelican2_filtered.jpg

It is just an example, to sum only 2 photos is too few to eliminate the background noise... :D

Ivan

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if your interested in getting a 7 day free trial to actually control a scope guys go to www.slooh.com! Sign up for the 7 day free trial then you can cancel before the end of the 7 days and theres your free trial

Problem solved! Its also been featured in Sky at Night!

Darren :D

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Akyra,

there is not "rotar basis" in the telescopes control, the controls are shared and we use the chat to organize the pointment and photos, i rememner you that the photo can be taken from a user and be viewed from all the other connected users.

I suggest you to login for free and try to see how this system is nice and easy to use.

I understand that it seems to be unveleable or someone think that is fake or similar... again try to beleave :D

Whiplash,

what means "kosher" ? sorry i am not able to translate it in italian.

The most of users are italian, you are right, this is because we are starting right now to invite english users too.

In any case as you saw in the chat, except me there are other users that can speak english, and just one hour ago there was 4 UK users... all in english :lol:

Anyway when i am logged, i will be pleased to help and chat with you there to observe togheter in real time.

ciao,

Ivan

This seems fine, but if the users are italian, how are we brits supposed to communicate to point the telescope? or am i being over predantic?

AT

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I did go in for a look myself and silly me forgot to change the language setting so I went about things all the wrong way. The software looks good enough but the pictures I was getting on my pc were not that great, loads of noise on them. but to be fair i only went in for 10 minutes or so then i went out and forgot it was still running. But anything to bring the hobby to the masses is a good idea.

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Darren,

i tryed some month ago to use the slooh telescopes, but frankly speaking i did not able do understand how it work, it seem like that there are some pre-setted object(missions) that you can see, but i dont know if you can see, take pictures, and chatting all in real time and in whatever kind of deep sky object you want...

Correct me if i am wrong, but i understood so about slooh.

If you want i can give you a free trial account too to use Skylive telescopes, and then you will post your comment about difference in using Skylive or Slooh :D

in any case i think that 60 euros for one year of full remote control of 3 telescopes are really few even for a people that not works...

AstroTiger,

i understand what you mean, of course it is important communicate by chat to use properly the telescopes.

If you are a enabled user, and will happen that the telescope is used from only italian users too, then you can use another telescope of 3 available, but really usually there are a lot of italian guy that can communicate in english too.

Or in particular case, for example if you need to perform a research(light curve of variable star for example) and you need to use the telescope at one particular time or day, we can book to you the choosen telescope to be used only by you for one ore more hours.

In this case we will ask in change a little more quote(2.5 euro / hour for example) just becouse you are the only enabled user in that hours...

Anyway , if you contact me or the staff in time, we can manage any kind of observations, this is a not commercial project, so we try to satisfy every user that ask :lol:

proflight2000 ,

of course for you is better to change the program language in English, we translated the program just for you :p

Of course as you said, you went in only for 10 minutes, and for sure you saw only the live images, on the top-left window(320x240) , that images are just a preview(only one second exposure) to see the pointed field, so it is normal that there is background noise.

If you use a CCD camera will see the same behaviour in your monitor :lol:

But then when we take the long exposure pictures, the most of noise go away, giving out more object details.

This the link for all the .jpg photo of the last 30 days :

http://lnx.skylive.it/vostrefoto.htm

these are the link where you can find all the .FIT images :

http://lnx.skylive.it/tele1/archiviofit

http://lnx.skylive.it/tele2/archiviofit

http://lnx.skylive.it/tele3/archiviofit

You are free to download all the pictures that you want, jpg or fit, and play with them !!

this is free :)

If you need more information, i am happy to answer you.

Clear skyes,

Ivan

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Yes AT,

The live images, photo captured and chat are all free, means that every 'free' user can see in real time every object or photo taken from other enabled users.

If a user want also control the telescopes where he want, shared as already said, the can send 60 euro to the skylive project as donation and will be enabled for one year, for all the 3 telescopes without any limitation of use or photos to shot.

(the users that you see in chat with the '@' symbol in front of their nick are enabled)

The reason why we dont' allow all users for free to control the telescopes are 2 :

1) the project needs found to grown and pay the maintenance expenses(this is a hobby for us, noone pay us)

2) can you image if 500 users(and most of them are just curios) could move the telescope at the same time? will be a total caos, in this way we can filter the honest and good users, that know what to do in the right mode :lol:

Do you agree?

I really invite you to try this system, may be using and having a look on it will be more simple to understand hot it works...

Now i am online there on the chat, if you want we can chat there too.

Ivan

P.S. sorry if my english is not perfect... i learnt at school and i am still learning it. :D

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I had a go last night and found that Ivan went out of his way to explain everything. I feel that it will be a great site and will dfinetly be paying my 60 euro.

I suppose that every new project will always be treated with suspition at first,given the times that we live in.

I am sure that it will be a great asset to us all in what is after all a very close knit community with a great track record.

Good luck Ivan.

John

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And only for you (this is not public) this is the live image of the observatory(dome closed of course during daylight) :

skylive.dyndns.org:8883

here you can find the 3 telescopes from left : Takahashi SKY90, VIXEN VISAC 8" and LX200 12"

regards,

Ivan

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What's the format of the data you get? Jpg, gif, tif, bmp, fits? Watch out for compression of jpg and gif. Scientific images require fits, which are not compressed and contain information headers describing equipment, location, exposure, processing etc. For pretty pictures, compression is ok to an extent.

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