Virtual telescopes offer an excellent solution for those who do not have their own telescope such as a NexStar 6SE or who do not have access to one at an observatory or other location.
These virtual telescopes provide connections with innovative instruments inside an observatory or space organisation and these telescopes can be utilised for research and study. These services are also utlised by those such as amateur astronomers who have their own telescope such as a NexStar 8SE, wanting access to powerful observatory equipment. Some services are offered for free and others are available for a fee. You can access the service remotely via your computer and broadband internet connection so when you’re set up, you’re ready to go.
Microsoft Research’s Worldwide Telescope service is an example of a free offering. You either use their service via your web browser or via a Microsoft Windows program that you install on your local computer. This software enables you to search the universe, combining imagery from ground and space-based telescopes with 3D navigation.
Observatories and other organisations provide many services to amateur astronomers which are available for a fee. One such service provided by the Bellatrix Astronomical Observatory in Italy can be accessed at virtualtelescope.eu. Premium services are sometmes offered by the trained astronomers at these observatories where members can receive further information and facts and assistance from them personally.
Some observatories include services where members can organize for an astronomical observation instrument to be set up where they are able to watch the resulting images via their internet connection. Some virtual telescope websites provide access to archived materials that can be viewed or allow access to real time pictures of the skies.
Perhaps one of the most exciting abilities for virtual telescopes, which has already been deployed successfully, is the ability to form a single super impressive virtual telescope by combining the dishes together from multiple telescopes. In 2008, astronomers at the MIT Haystack Observatory attached radio dishes together in Hawaii, California and Arizona, creating a virtual telescope more than 2,800 miles across! This enabled them to see detail more than 1,000 times finer than the Hubble Space Telescope and they obtained the most detailed view to date of what many believe to be a large black hole at the center of our galaxy.
The pictures supplied by these virtual telescopes are of course far superior to those viewable by an amateur astronomer using their own telescope such as a Meade ETX 125 and virtual telescopes offer insight into many mysteries of the evening sky.