Viewing the Universe with an iPhone: Jeff Terry, Professor of Physics, Breaks New Ground with Mobile Devices
On March 8th at 9:30 pm, Jeff Terry, Professor of Physics, took control of a Global-Rent-A-Scope (GRAS) telescope located near Cloudcroft, NM from Chicago, IL using his Apple iPhone. Using the iPhone's Safari web browser, Terry positioned the telescope to view the Orion Nebula (M42) and used the telescope's mounted camera to collect images of the celestial object, marking the first time that an iPhone has been used for this purpose.
This remote image of M42 was collected using the GRAS001 telescope guided by an iPhone.
This feat was accomplished using Global-Rent-A-Scope (GRAS), a global network of high-performance telescopes made available to professional and amateur astronomers who control the telescopes remotely from anywhere in the world. The GRAS project supports many educational activities through their StarPals youth astronomy network. IIT students began using the GRAS telescopes for a supernovae search at the start of 2008, allowing them to search the skies from nearly any point in the world.
Professor Terry has long searched for ways to make active astronomy more accessible to students, including the student astronomers that he works with in the IIT Society of Physics Students. In 2001, Terry developed software, iCCD, to capture and process astronomical images for Macs running OS X. When he heard that some universities were considering giving iPhones to incoming freshmen, Terry saw the possibilities. "Many students may not be able to afford their own computers, and this will allow anyone with an iPhone or iPod touch to perform remote astronomical observations, affordably," he says. We believe that processing software hosted on remote servers will be written to facilitate image processing by students through an iPhone.
Terry is developing software that facilitates remote telescope control and image gathering for the iPhone, which will support third-party applications starting in June.
For more information about Prof. Terry's astronomy research visit www.macastroimager.com.
For more information about Global-Rent-A-Scope visit www.global-rent-a-scope.com.
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