This service is now Federated and has joined the Australian Access Federation. Staff and students from federated institutions (currently Australian universities) can now access this service by clicking the "Shibboleth" icon (near the top of the telescope-net.com home page), and using the credentials issued to them by their institution.

17-Mar-2011: Speaking at EDUCAUSE

We will be speaking as part of an AAF presentation at the 2011 EDUCAUSE conference, to be held in Sydney in early April. The session is titled "Innovative federation uses: Telescopes, labs, and clouds".

15-Dec-2010: e-Science

In late 2010, we presented a paper at the "e-Science challenges in astronomy and astrophysics" workshop. This workshop was held as a part of the Sixth IEEE International Conference on e-Science. The paper can be found here.

1-Jul-2010: Join the Federation!

APTA and telescope-net are proud to announce that they are recipients of a "mini-grant" from the Australian Access Federation. This grant will allow us to deploy telescope-net as a federated service, such that students and staff from federated institutions will be able to access the website and services easily and securely.

30-Jun-2010: "Astrocoder" / SCS service

The telescope-net "astrocoding" service is now available for public use. This provides access (via HTTP) to our catalogue of astronomical objects, including asteroids, comets and deep-sky objects. It will accept a wide range of search parameters, including "simple cone search" parameters, and can produce data in a number of different forms, including the standards-compliant VOTable format. Please see the information page for details and examples of use.

20-Jun-2010: Observing info for you

From the website front page, you can now get observing information for your city, including cloud cover predictions, dusk and dawn times, plus lots of other stuff. With a website login, you can also search for IAU/MPC observatories, telescope-net telescopes and user-defined observing sites. Additionally, if your site isn't there, you'll soon be able to log in and create it!

30-May-2010: Geocoder released

We have just released the telescope-net geocoder for public use. This service provides information on cities and IAU/MPC observatories, as well as telescope-net telescopes and user-defined observing sites. The service can operate both as a geocoder and as a "reverse geocoder". Please see the information page for more information on the geocoder and examples of use.

29-May-2010: Your moon

We have just launched another google gadget, titled "Your moon". This gadget, which you can add to webpages or to an iGoogle page, shows an image of the Moon with the same phase and orientation as you see it when you go outside and look. This incorporates some new technologies, including both geocoding and IP geolocation for determining observing locations. So, you can either let the module choose your location, based upon your IP address, or specify a city of interest. Please see the Gadgets page for more information.

12-Dec-2008: Moon rise and set

We have launched another Google Gadget, which provides rise and set times of the moon for any location, along with some other information. Please go to our Gadgets page for more information, or to put the module on iGoogle or your webpages.

28-Oct-2008: Helping UQSchoolsNet

telescope-net has helped The University of Queensland's launch of 'UQ Schools Net', as an example of the sort of technologies which can be delivered across the new, high-speed link. The launch was held on 28-October-2008, at Ipswich Girls' Grammar School. The poster which The University of Queensland created for telescope-net can be seen here as a PDF (4.2 MB).

3-Aug-2008: ALTC Citation!

The Mt Kent Observatory team at the University of Southern Queensland have been awarded a Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning from the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC; formerly the Carrick Institute). The Citation was awarded for developing a specialised astronomy facility that engages on-campus and distance education students in science through practical and interactive experiences, in part through the use of telescope-net systems and infrastructure. The Mt Kent Observatory team has helped to develop the O'Mara telescope, a fully-robotic instrument which forms a part of the telescope-net network. The full list of Citation recipients for 2008 can be found here.

5-Apr-2008: Google modules launched

As a part of our commitment to make our astronomy services available to all, we have created our first two Google Gadgets. The first of these allows you to see information on the current positions and visibilities of the sun, moon and major planets, and can be adapted to display information on any object in our catalog including comets and asteroids. The second Gadget always shows the latest image processed by the telescope-net network, along with a brief description. Please see the Gadgets page for more information, or to put them on your iGoogle or web pages.

22-May-2007: Paper published!

After finally getting around to doing the corrections, the first paper on this system has been published in Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia. You can view the abstract here, or feel free to contact the author for the full paper.