Astronomy equipment improvements over the next couple of decades

[Paz]

6 hours ago, John said:

I hope that simple observing will continue but I suspect that it will increasingly become a niche activity within the amateur side of astronomy.

I'd love to hear what the folks at FLO think about potential future directions - it must be something that is on their mind frequently 🙂 

Reading all the posts got me thinking further about improvements for selfish reasons i.e. for visual observing which his my thing, and I keep coming back to a couple... one is weight savings as I originally mentioned but the other one, odd as it may seem, is active cooling of both the OTA and the air within it to reduce the cool down times on more mainstream scopes. Those two things combined would open up the opportunities of being able to handle bigger apertures and spend more time observing with a cooled scope which is especially useful in my circumstances where a lot of sessions are opportunistic with no time to plan ahead and cool a scope properly. On the weight topic I have half an eye on those Explore Scientific 127mm carbon scopes which do very well for weight, but they are triplets. If they did a doublet that would be even lighter and I would be very interested in such a scope.

I would also like to hear about FLO's secret plans for the next disruptive developments in kit!

[Paz]

6 hours ago, Franklin said:

An active night vision eyepiece, something like a Quark that just plugs into a regular scope but allows you to see in NV.

I stopped following posts about NV quite some time ago as it was just so far out of my league financially but if it gets cheap enough in my lifetime I would give it a go in the same way that the Quark has brought Ha observing within reach for me.

[Elp]

8 minutes ago, Paz said:

If they did a doublet that would be even lighter and I would be very interested in such a scope.

Borg 107?

[Paz]

1 hour ago, DaveS said:

There's no point. It doesn't matter how advanced the equipment becomes global warming just means ever increasing cloud cover.

I think there's no longer any future in astronomy from this vile swamp of a country.

I agree the UK is a rubbish place to be an observer, but I haven't been observing long enough to have experienced better times so psychologically I tend to accept the long spells of unrelenting cloud as being normal. I do though wonder how many people try this hobby and then leave it quite quickly when the reality of the weather dawns on them.

[Knighty2112]

We’ve waited a long time for them, but surely in a couple of decades we’ll all have bionic eyes with zoom built in, along with automatic stacking of images!  

[The Lazy Astronomer]

1 hour ago, DaveS said:

I think there's no longer any future in astronomy from this vile swamp of a country.

Woah, having a bad day?

[Deadlake]

21 minutes ago, Paz said:

I stopped following posts about NV quite some time ago as it was just so far out of my league financially but if it gets cheap enough in my lifetime I would give it a go in the same way that the Quark has brought Ha observing within reach for me.

In Europe the price has gone up, however the cost of a good L3 MVD in the US is half the price including taking taxes into account.

I guess the question is why the NVD kit is twice that in EU compared to US?

Also all relative, the cost for a 20" dob set of mirrors in the EU is around EUR 10,000 excluding the frame, focuser etc.

A 10" BS Newt + an EU NVD is less and you will see more and can use the NVD in more scopes.

 

[ONIKKINEN]

6 minutes ago, Deadlake said:

I guess the question is why the NVD kit is twice that in EU compared to US?

Im sure you can figure this one out quite easily?

Lets just say there is more demand for night vision kit at the moment for some places in Europe.

[Deadlake]

3 minutes ago, ONIKKINEN said:

Im sure you can figure this one out quite easily?

Lets just say there is more demand for night vision kit at the moment for some places in Europe.

It has always been like this going back some years....

It might simply be due to hunters in the US using NVD's and hence there is a bigger market...

Also the best tubes for astronomy have low EBI's, not really used for other applications as far as I know.

Edited April 17, 2023 by Deadlake

[Stephenstargazer]

IMHO and blessed with perfect foresight........

I think the hobby will diverge even more strongly into those who want to use robotic telescopes in observatories, some who persevere with better domestic robotic systems and a retro movement determined to use the simplest historic gear with no aids at all and a Mk1 eyeball. The latter will be using some of the stuff we leave behind......there wont be a market for new visual gear.

And obviously the first two groups will be using every wavelength of the EM Spectrum.

Edited April 17, 2023 by Stephenstargazer

[ONIKKINEN]

15 minutes ago, Deadlake said:

It has always been like this going back some years....

It might simply be due to hunters in the US using NVD's and hence there is a bigger market...

Also the best tubes for astronomy have low EBI's, not really used for other applications as far as I know.

You are probably right, firearms and hunting is much more popular in the US so makes sense that the market is focused there. Have only been following astronomy for 3 years now so have an incomplete picture of what the prices were long ago.

[Highburymark]

Well let’s face it, night vision has been a huge flop in this country. It needs to be said. 
If ever there was a solution to light pollution (apart from an energy crisis forcing bills up by thousands of pounds - that would certainly encourage people to turn off pointless lighting 🤬) night vision was it.
Yes, it’s expensive, but no more than many people spend on a top notch dob or refractor, or even a relatively small solar Ha scope. Yet, rather than become mainstream, it remains the pastime of a few oddballs, misfits and weirdos. Like me 🧐.    
I’m surprised how few people have embraced it, but I completely respect and understand why. I think, on the whole, the amateur astronomy market is a pretty conservative one (with a small c that is). And that’s why the answer to the OP’s question is probably, there won’t be much change over the next decade or two, beyond what we’ve seen in the past decade. More imaging/faster scopes/harmonic mounts etc.

[Xilman]

I am primarily an imager and much more interested in science than in aesthetics. This colours my wishes and expectations.

What I hope to see

Inexpensive yet good quality spectroscopy.

Near-IR imaging (1-5 microns, say) to punch through much of the light pollution which plagues those who observe in the 0.3 to 1.0 micron range.

GOTO and plate-solving being almost ubiquitous so pointing to arcsecond accuracy becomes the norm.

Perhaps within 20 years: active optics, using field stars initially, to give near diffraction-limited imaging.

Software image plane linearization (no more distortion, coma, astigmatism, etc.)

Alt-az mounts driven in both axes and field-rotation as standard. Focal plane at either of the Nasmyth positions, switchable within seconds for two differing equipment installations, whether an eyepiece, camera or spectrograph depending on interest.

Summary: look at what the professionals have been doing for the last 30 years. If you look at what they were doing in 1990, many amateurs are now doing it today.

Edited April 17, 2023 by Xilman
Add Alt-az sentence.

[John]

Is the availability of high spec NV sensors still impacted by technology export restrictions, primarily in the USA, or have things moved on from there now ?

 

[Highburymark]

5 minutes ago, John said:

Is the availability of high spec NV sensors still impacted by technology export restrictions, primarily in the USA, or have things moved on from there now ?

 

It’s still the same as far as I know John.

[Deadlake]

1 hour ago, John said:

Is the availability of high spec NV sensors still impacted by technology export restrictions, primarily in the USA, or have things moved on from there now ?

 

In the EU fabricated by Haarder, ITAR prohibits the export of NVD’s from the US.

Edited April 17, 2023 by Deadlake

[mikeDnight]

3 hours ago, DaveS said:

There's no point. It doesn't matter how advanced the equipment becomes global warming just means ever increasing cloud cover.

I think there's no longer any future in astronomy from this vile swamp of a country.

It makes me glad I'm a visual only observer. I'm happy with 15 minutes here, 30 minutes there. Many times I've waited patiently under seemingly blanket cloud, when suddenly the sky has cleared for an hour with perfect seeing, or brief spells of observing through sucker holes. I can manage some quality observing in just one hour!

[Highburymark]

1 hour ago, mikeDnight said:

It makes me glad I'm a visual only observer. I'm happy with 15 minutes here, 30 minutes there. Many times I've waited patiently under seemingly blanket cloud, when suddenly the sky has cleared for an hour with perfect seeing, or brief spells of observing through sucker holes. I can manage some quality observing in just one hour!

I agree Mike! I’m more frustrated by poor seeing than cloud, which I just accept as inevitable, but I still enjoy every moment I spend observing. 

[Merak]

I think we will see more in the way of integrated EAA/EEVA type scopes with digital eyepieces, much like the eVscope 2 that is available now, but a lot cheaper in future.   At the moment the cost of something like that is out of the reach of many but perhaps in 10-15 years time they will be far cheaper?

[Second Time Around]

10 hours ago, Franklin said:

An active night vision eyepiece, something like a Quark that just plugs into a regular scope but allows you to see in NV.

Many NV devices already do just that!

[Louis D]

2 hours ago, John said:

Is the availability of high spec NV sensors still impacted by technology export restrictions, primarily in the USA, or have things moved on from there now ?

 

So what's keeping the 40+ countries in Europe from designing and selling their own high spec NV sensors?

[Louis D]

10 hours ago, Franklin said:

An active night vision eyepiece, something like a Quark that just plugs into a regular scope but allows you to see in NV.

The Collins Electro Optics I3 was pretty much that.  It didn't sell well, so it was discontinued years ago.

There are plenty of ad hoc NV astro solutions out there today, but I'm not aware of any as plug and play as the CEO I3 was.

[John]

20 minutes ago, Louis D said:

So what's keeping the 40+ countries in Europe from designing and selling their own high spec NV sensors?

I've no idea. Maybe they are ?

[Sunshine]

Self collimating telescopes, simply push a button and lasers instantly align mirrors to a degree even the human eye cannot.

Edited April 17, 2023 by Sunshine

[John]

1 hour ago, Sunshine said:

Self collimating telescopes, simply push a button and lasers instantly align mirrors to a degree even the human eye cannot.

..... then takes a series of DPAC tests in red, green and blue light, interprets the results and sends them to your mobile phone 😁

If the results fall below a level defined by the owner, the instrument is automatically offered for sale on the Astro Buy & Sell website at 66% of the retail price ......