Sky & Telescope August 1998 [antikvár]

Research-oriented amateurs have always had one big edge over professionals time, gobs of it. They can undertake long-duration programs (constantly monitoring a "constant" star) or programs with a high risk of failure (searching for lunar transient phenomena). Professionals with such ideas find a frigid reception at their observatories.And now amateur astronomers are catching up with professionals technologically. Amateurs are more equal today vis-a-vis professionals than they have been in a century. No, I'm not saying that amateurs can explore the ends of the universe well, maybe not but they are challenging professionals in many arenas closer to home.Five capabilities make amateurs competitive.la. Photon harvesting: bigger telescopes and, especially, CCDs have filled that bill nicely.lb. Time resolution: CCDs again win big, at least for bright sources.2.Position measurement: CCDs and software work wonders together.3.Software: the variety and capability just keep growing.4.Spectrum analysis: this is just coming online.5.Spatial resolution: diffraction-limited optics can now produce diffraction-limited images despite poor seeing.It's this last item I want to explore in this Spectrum.In the '80s and '90s we were amazed at the resolution Don Parker captured with his telescopes. A favorite viewgraph I show during talks on avant-garde amateur astronomy is a comparison of Don's Mars vs. HST's. He loses, but you need a sharp eye to tell! A great telescope and seeing, image processing, and most of all time (patience) are Don's trump cards.And now we have new players in the high-resolution game. SBIG has introduced its adaptive-optics system to rock images steady. It's not the first, but it seems to be an optomechanical quantum leap forward. We'll see.Yet I'm always astounded at the ingenuity of amateurs who tease extraordinary results from ordinary equipment. Ron Dantowitz (above, left) at the Boston Museum of Science is the latest inductee to the pantheon of pacesetters. His surprise is diffraction-limited images through video, and I recommend that you visit his salon beginning on page 48.What's extra special about Ron's work is that his toys are cheap and off the shelf you can buy 'em this afternoon. He "simply" amalgamates and exploits the capabilities of commercial stuff. To gain widespread use within the amateur community, that's the way things have to be. Very few people want to, or have the time to, build equipment or invent techniques. That's why commercialization happens.Amateurs have already gained parity with professionals in many ways. Yet I believe we're seeing just the tip of a really big iceberg.