Post by alwynbotha on May 10, 2007 14:11:37 GMT -6
Dear Chicago Astronomer forum members,
I am an amateur astronomer passionately interested in planetary webcam astrophotography.
I would like to use my current misfortune to eventually lead to benefits for the overall global astro-community.
(Months ago I wanted to let my fortunate position (Jupiter at 79 degrees altitude (in Africa) and 7-8 out of 10 seeing) to eventually lead to benefits for the overall global astro-community.)
Please read this posting in its entirety before considering removing it.
Unfortunately the first part of this document is full of I's - only at the end will it become clear how it could possibly relate to you:
a (nearly free) monthly DVD with multi-computer farm processed images and rotation movies from ALL the best amateur astrophotographers worldwide.
Unfortunately the good stuff in this document is only right at the end, so please withhold your 'judgment' about its audacious tone until you read the full document and considered its probably beneficiary implications to you.
Around 3 months ago I decided to move to Sutherland in South Africa - which is 'known' to be the best place in Africa for astronomers.
BIG MISTAKE!!!
I have been here nearly 3 weeks and only had 2 nights that I would consider had considerable better seeing than average inner city conditions. Frequent clouds, wind and dew was another frequent problem.
I had a plan, a dream and a vision - the plan now in shatters. The dream and vision still worth rescuing ... the point of the document.
Only after I physically got here did the reality become clear. Only now am I told that the next four months' weather will be just as HORRIBLE as it is now.
The claimed Sutherland "80 percent cloudless nights" is plain wrong. Anyone that stayed here for more than a week knows that statement is false.
Now do I understand why I could not find ANY yearly cloud cover stats for Sutherland. And I spend considerable time on this - it was an important aspect. I found several decades-long stats of monthly temperatures so I knew I was in for a very cold winter.
I repeatedly (a month ago) contacted the astrocommunity on Sutherland and still heard nothing from them.
Same for the 10-meter observatory.
I spend nearly 2 months planning my move here. I send numerous emails to ALL the guest houses I could find around Sutherland. Willie Koorts was kind enough to supply me with a list that helped a lot.
I spend weeks studying the 300+ astro documents I download around 3 years ago. During this time I download an additional 230 fresh documents - nearly 800 MB in size. I also download 30+ freeware astroware which I practiced using in preparation for my stay at Sutherland.
To simply say I prepared is an understatement. I downloaded 382 individual images using NASA solar system viewer for every 10 degrees covering the 4 large moons of Jupiter during 2007. Every images' rotation angle painstakingly calculated. Many other activies too numerous to mention ...
My plan was as follows:
======================
Before I get into the negatives, ...
Positive aspects of my current location:
- spectacular silence - nearly 20 hours of every day and night
- helpful guest house owners - also: I pay a greatly reduced rate - per month - not per day
- overall calm and purposeful aspect that the farm exist in
- I fall asleep within minutes and have invigorating peaceful nights
- beautiful semi-desert
- permission to go on daily 2 hour long walks up a steep hillside
- seeing around 7 of 10 on Pickering scale - based on 2 weeks of experience. This seeing happens only once every 2 weeks. Remaining 13 days windy and cloudy - and very humid (nightly dew running down gutters sound like rain - dams of water at gutters in the morning).
- crime free area - WOW - leaving doors open when I go for my daily work. Compared to SIX gates and doors between me in the house and the outside.
My plan was to take MANY and SPECTACULAR images of Jupiter and specifically Ganymede during May and June 2007.
Once Internet-uploaded these results would have easily convinced anyone that I am among the top 3 planetary webcam astrophotographers in the world. ( I had many months of experience in 2003, 2004 and spend considerable effort in trying to tap all the quality I could get out of the images I took in 4 and 5 out of 10 Pickering seeing conditions. )
Considering that these results were only my first results from a spectacular seeing location, quality will only get better.
I also planned to promise on the website to dedicate my time ( I am unemployed ) to advancing webcam astrophotography.
I then wanted to respectfully request to be permanently moved to somewhere in Chile - where I will be full time 'employed' by the global planetary astro webcam community.
During the past months I download and studied MANY digital imaging research reports. Very interesting and relevant to webcam astrophotography. Some of these research projects even have MATLAB code available for research purposes.
All currently webcam processing freeware, shareware and commercial software and significantly benefit by incorporating these continually emerging advances into it.
Unfortunately I am not a maths wiz - so I will not tinker with the mathematical formulas for deconvolution for example. I will only tinker with the many interrelating parameters/settings of the software. The plan is to: for example:
compare the 4 deconvolution facilities of Iris to around 5 other emerging astro-specific decon. routines.
Obviously it will benefit everyone if this is done using the AVIs from several other webcam amateurs - not just mine - taken from Pickering = 8 conditions.
Due to the weather and some other (not worth individually listing it here) reasons I am now packing up my telescope.
Due to the bad weather my plan is unachievable. I cannot get the volume and quality images I want within 3 months - as far as I know no individual at Sutherland could do anything remotely similar, even after staying years at this location.
Here is my alternate plan:
Alternate Plan
==============
Get out of Africa VERY soon. I can pack and leave within 30 minutes.
The easiest (I assume) would be if I were to come on a maximum allowed (2 months??) astronomy vacation to Chile or Australia.
While there the volume and quality of my work should (hopefully) convince the astrocommunity that me staying in Africa is a waste of spectacular vision and overflowing goodwill towards the astrocommunity.
Longer term it is irrelevant where I physically stay - telescopes can be remotely controlled and nightly pre-scheduled. Short term I do not mind staying in Australia for a year. However, eventually I think I will end up permanently in Chile. So maybe me going to Australia for a year is a good idea, afterwards I will end up in Chile for the (possibly) 60 years of my remaining astronomically productive years.
In order to prove what I am capable of what I dream of doing, I need to be in Australia or Chile (anywhere in southern hemisphere where I can be astronomically VERY productive) VERY soon. (I risked coming to Sutherland - a nearly 1000 miles journey.)
As you probably know every 1 hour of continuous AVI capturing needs around 10 hours of computer processing time. So I can capture AVIs at most for 4 hours at night - to keep two computers running 20 hours per day.
Longer term vision
==================
Ahhhh .... you see where my vision comes from - having access to over 50 computers in one physical location - all running 24 hours a day - processing AVIs from all astrophotographers worldwide.
These computers will obviously create many versions of results - comparing output from many freeware, shareware and commercial software packages.
And the dream is to do this for free - or VERY cheaply - anyone having access to a 'farm' of computers - processing and comparing existing software and emerging new algorithms. Obviously everyone will want THEIR avis processed to see how they can improve.
I have one computer. I need around another 2 cheapest currently new computers with 17 inch screens. The volume of AVIs to process every day makes this a requirement. This way my computer can be 100 percent available to create web pages to describe the processed experiments and results.
Summary of requirements: great seeing 50 percent of time, usage of 2 computers, roof over head, electricity, water, daily bread and tea, Internet access to upload results, silence.
A solid pier would be a great help - the past few days I held my precariously balanced telescope-wedge combination upright by hanging rocks - tied with ropes - all around the the wedge and tripod.
I have contributions towards several astro communities of interest. Unfortunately there is no single company or interest group that I could singly approach.
I would like this forum posting / email to remain where I posted it so that if anyone exploits my misfortune for their gain, they could be easily exposed.
There is such a lot I can and passionately want to do, please help the overall amateur astronomy community making this a reality.
Please consider that I am currently in a bitterly disappointed state of mind and when I am in more productive surroundings, I will re-emerge my old self.
I am probably the most non-social person you will ever not meet. I will be most useful when I work and stay alone on a mountain top.
My contributions will be in the form of website contents, experimental comparisons, hour-long multi-computer farm processed results (available for near-free to ALL amateurs) and Internet forum postings.
I will not be attending social get-togethers, however I am aware that from time to time I will attend planned strategic workgroup sessions (where interested parties will discuss how to implement this process I hereby commit myself to).
Due to the many daily astro-activities I plan to take part in I do not need 70 percent clear skies. Around 50 percent will still be 100 percent good enough.
During the next year I plan to focus on high resolution astrophotography: planets and moon. Only years later do I want to use SBIG cameras to photograph spiral galaxies. So for now a high res. astrolocation is more more important than low res. dark skies.
Please look at what I did during 2003-2004 at www.webcam-astrophotography.com to see roughly what I have in mind. Since I hope to have access to more computers, I hope to deliver more scientifically correct results: for example: testing Peltier cooling temperatures would be done more that once only to ensure correct results.
Lucky man on top of the world
=============================
Obviously it will soon be apparent to other astrophotographers that me sitting on top of the top-seeing mountain in the world is underutilising its potential.
The idea here would be (for example) to let anyone that contributes (and continues to fully own) any telescope, camera to this location, to let them have 100 percent free processed results for all the AVIs captured there. I would commit myself to babysitting such telescopes for free. They would also get free exposure for their work on that planned monthly DVDs.
All this could be available for free to those commited to making all their work available for free on their websites.
Obviously unprocessed planetary (and lunar) AVIs are too large to economically send over the Internet. However the final (before deconvolution / sharpening ) images are VERY small and could be automatically FTPed to the relevant person(s) hours after capturing. They can then enjoy doing the final processing steps.
One possible financial opportunity
==================================
Years ago I created a network of 10 free astrowebsites that - within a year - got 350 thousand visitors every month!
Having access to hour-long multi-computer farm processed images from all webcam astrophotographers worldwide could easily lead to at least one full 4 GB DVD monthly subscription from 10,000 people. If all get from this is $ 10,000 a month I would obviously be happy.
Fortunately I cannot eat $ 10,000 worth of chickens a month (I bet there are many chickens being happy about that statement).
Obviously the other contributors to such a monthly DVD will be compensated appropriately. I think that a $ 10 selling price for such a DVD is fair.
Obviously other mini-computer farms are welcome to help doing the processing.
(Probably less than one percent of astro-people are the doers. They will actively contribute. The other 9, 900 subscribers to such a DVD will just admire the pictures, rotation movies and intellectually interesting popular-astro-level articles. The active doers need the money from these masses to buy more equipment to create even more quantity and quality contents ... a mutually beneficial symbiosis. Probably even a tri-oses considering those chickens.)
However, there are continually new software, webcams, telescopes, domes, etc. that would make sense to spend nearly all that money on every month.
Making money is not my objective, however, having access to some money to invest every month will help.
I want the satisfaction of making a significant global contribution to astronomy over the next 60 years. The cheaper and more freely all my results are available, the better. Surely that summarizes the reason so many other individuals make their astro-software freely available.
To get going all I need initially is one slightly cash-rich individual or company to get my in Chile or Australia SOON ... still in time for the (tail end of the) Jupiter 2007 opposition.
(Except for my 10 inch Meade SCT, and my computer I own less that 2 cubic meters of other 'incidentals'.)
Technical Aside
===============
Over a year ago I did a thorough study of removing spyware. It was very interesting to disentangle all the aspects of the technical loopholes it uses to infest computers. I download all the freeware tools I could find and studied it in detail. I also downloaded numerous free and commercial solutions and studied ALL their options and settings in detail. I learnt a lot about the inner technical workings of Windows.
I invented a 1980 Basic (programming language) solution to solve ANY spyware problem 100 percent. I contacted around 10 of the leading commercial spyware removal companies about my solution. One responded just once. After that silence. In retrospect I was naive to think spyware companies would be interested in fully solving the spyware problem. So that was the end of my dream of making 100 million people in the world more productive (by permanently fixing their spyware infested computers). Spyware is significantly easier to solve than viruses.
I still feel good about the intellectual challenge this represented and that I was able to conquer it.
I have extensive programming experience in several programming languages (my vision does not need a salaried person to run the proposed computer network.)
My current dream is for my astro-efforts to help all webcam planetary in some form. Numerous other people already do this through their various individual ways.
I talked to the guest house owners where I am currently staying and they will look for email replies at least every week. (I have no internet access out on the farm I stay at - 32 km out of town.)
I will hitch a ride into town once a week so that I can answer comments in the Internet forums. However email to alwynbotha@yahoo.com is better - easier for guest house owners to monitor.
My current few Jupiter 2007 webcam results are available at www.webcam-astrophotography.com
My nightly astrophotography sessions use around 15 times the mirror's surface area in cheaply made carton box accessories. So if me moving overseas is out of the question then a $ 1000 cash injection could help fix my current badly chosen astro-productivity location. Firstly I need to move to ANY other location in Southern Africa - at least 100 kilometers from here.
Then again - that money could get me (including all my incidentals) anywhere in the world in 24 hours.
Naive enthusiam or brilliant - you decide.
Thanks.
Alwyn Botha
Sutherland
South Africa
alwynbotha@yahoo.com
