Smart Stars Rising

Welcome to my new blog, which I'm calling Smart Stars. Okay, so here's the basic information about why I would want to launch myself with you in the payload compartment into the blogosphere.

• Who is this for? It's being written for new and aspiring owners of what are currently called "smart" telescopes. These game-changing imaging telescopes started appearing on Earth starting around 2020. Unistellar and Vaonis led the adventure with their eVscope and Stellina imaging scopes, but now others are joining in the game, with junior versions like the DWARF II and the ZWO Seestar. Oh, and I'm writing this to a level of a passionate novice, since this is where most of the questions I've been answering on social media come from. I'm not an advanced amateur astronomer, though I do know quite a bit of astronomy and astrophysics myself.

• Why am I writing these? Since I started using smart telescopes three years ago I've participated in most of the online Facebook groups. I've worked to answer a number of questions that have more to do with the astronomy and the basic physics behind what is going on with imaging telescopes such as these. Often my explanations seem a bit long for Facebook entries, so I thought this might be a better way to discuss topics without being so constrained. And, I hope that if I can manage to tag these entries properly, people can find them. But, I have two other reasons I'm writing these. First of all, as I've watched other first-time users I see the same basic questions about what to expect and how to observe come up time and time again. With this blog I hope I can settle some of those issues quickly and easily once and for all. The second is that I am, at heart, a teacher of astronomy -- especially deep space astrophysics. I feel that these new smart telescopes have become like on-ramps to the Milky Way Galaxy and the Intergalactic Universe. Even novices with these things can skip past the Moon into trans-lunar space, hop off Arcturus and find themselves a long way from home. I strongly feel that one can see better when one has a good grasp what one is looking at. So, get ready for some just in time galactic, nebular and extragalactic astronomy.... ;-)

• What will I be writing about? I don't pretend to be an advanced amateur astronomer or adept user of programs like Photoshop. Nor am I a tech head. I have a "feel" for machines as my wife reminds me, but you really wouldn't want me taking your computer apart. For technical questions about the hardware and individual scope performance I'm assuming you will write to the manufacturers who maintain -- at least in my experience -- excellent service departments. I will be alternating between four subjects I think I am qualified to discuss: (1) Astronomy (and of course some astrophysics) at the level of the basic user of a smart telescope. It will be near the college 101 level, but will be tuned to help us all get the most out of our experiences imaging the deep universe; (2) Imaging, by which I mean the basic physics and mechanics of how the observing with these things works. As you'll see in my early posts there will be some discussion of what kinds of telescopes these are and why they really don't do too well (yet?) on planets. This topic will also involve the atmosphere and practical issues about getting the best images for our particular situations. If I delve into image processing, which I am quite interested in, it will be only at a pretty quick and dirty level. I'll leave the super image processing I see to others much better skilled; and finally (3) Sharing, our experiences and images with others. I have devoted my career to teaching people astronomy with any tool at hand. Usually that's been a planetarium, but I see these new smart telescopes as the next great thing in astronomy education. You might not be an educator by profession, but if you show something seen through your telescope to someone else, you will be. The last thing you want to do is to swamp them with technical details or leaving them dangling out at 20 parsecs away where the Kessel Run takes place. Finally, I will, for now, add one last topic: (4) Space Perspectives, which will be a catch all where I might comment on bigger issues in space exploration or astronomy. I might add additional topical categories in the future, but I'm going to start with these.

• What do I mean by Smart Stars? There's a double meaning here. The smart telescopes are one connection to the name, but the other is the users... and that means you. I believe that to get the most out of a smart telescope you need to bring a lot of knowledge and understanding to the experience. It's not instant science, I'm afraid. Yet I think the rewards are much greater than what we get from the sensationalized Internet news feeds. My aim is to make us all smart smart telescope users or more succinctly.... Smart Stars. Come and join me...