Viewing the Universe with an iPhone: IIT Professor Breaks New Ground with Mobile Devices
On March 8th at 9:30 pm, Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) physics professor Jeff Terry took control of a Global-Rent-A-Scope(GRAS) telescope located near Cloudcroft, NM from Chicago, IL using his Apple iPhone. Using the iPhone's Safari web browser, Terry positioned the telescope to view the Orion Nebula (M42) and used the telescope's mounted camera to collect images of the celestial object, marking the first time that an iPhone has been used for this purpose.
This feat was accomplished using Global-Rent-A-Scope’s global network of high-performance telescopes made available to professional and amateur astronomers who control the telescopes remotely from anywhere in the world. The GRAS project supports many educational activities through their StarPals youth astronomy network. IIT students began using the GRAS telescopes for a supernovae search at the start of 2008, allowing them to search the skies from nearly any point in the world.
Professor Terry has long searched for ways to make active astronomy more accessible to students, including the student astronomers that he works with in the IIT Society of Physics Students. In 2001, Terry developed software, iCCD, to capture and processes astronomical images for Macs running OS X. When he heard that some universities were considering giving iPhones to incoming freshmen, Terry saw the possibilities. "Many students may not be able to afford their own computers, and this will allow anyone with an iPhone or iPod Touch to perform remote astronomical observations, affordably," he says. “We believe that processing software hosted on remote servers will be written to facilitate images processing by students through an iPhone.”
Terry is developing software that facilitates remote telescope control and image gathering for the iPhone, which will support third-party applications starting in June. An image of the Orion Nebula taken using the iPhone is available at: http://mrmac.mr.aps.anl.gov/~astronut/pages/M42iPhone.htm
Founded in 1890, IIT is a Ph.D.-granting university with more than 6,700 students in engineering, sciences, architecture, psychology, design, humanities, business and law. IIT's interprofessional, technology-focused curriculum is designed to advance knowledge through research and scholarship, to cultivate invention improving the human condition, and to prepare students from throughout the world for a life of professional achievement, service to society, and individual fulfillment.
