Pick a celestial object that is visible from Nova Scotia. Not a bright star—it could saturate the camera. Not a constellation—they are too big. Got it? Ready, set, tweet!
On 29 February the Burke-Gaffney Observatory (BGO) at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax officially opened to the remote public. In the first few months, several hundred people from across Canada, the US, and Europe signed up to use the observatory’s 24-inch telescope. At any given time, 50 to 75 requests for astronomical images are in the queue, and observatory director David Lane hopes to eventually acquire 50 images per clear night.
As far as Lane is aware, the BGO telescope is the first that can be controlled automatically via social media; its Twitter handle is @smubgobs, and Lane plans to make the telescope also operable via Facebook.
The idea to use Twitter came with the BGO’s 2014 renovation, says Lane....
