[X] My Assistant

[dvandorn]

I recorded an interesting documentary this last Thursday, and I'm just now getting a chance to watch it. (Gotta love these digital video recorders...)

It's entitled "Seeing in the Dark," and it discusses the current state of amateur astronomy, with some nice information about its history. The biggest, most interesting thing is how many amateurs are now pulling their data from remote sources; there are tons of "time-share" 'scopes out there, which are financed by hundreds or thousands of eager amateur users, that collect photons onto digital camera systems and deliver their images to the amateur investigators via the internet.

It ran on PBS. I would hope it gets re-run at some point.

-the other Doug

[dvandorn]

The show didn't emphasize expense, really. There were actually some nice segments with people describing how they built their own scopes, cheap. One fellow showed off a scope built with materials left over from a canoe-building project, another spoke of grinding his own mirror in the aftermath of a hurricane, when "there wasn't no power, so I didn't have anything better to do."

It emphasized that making your own equipment could take a lot of perseverance and practice, but showed all sorts of people who were reaping the rewards of those virtues and were well-pleased with themselves.

All in all, I saw a lot of good role models who didn't spend an arm and a leg on their hobby. A good thing, I think.

-the other Doug