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Frequently Asked Questions
- What is MyTelescope.com?
In a sentence, MyTelescope.com is about providing observing
equipment at remote sites and putting you, the user, in control!
That's live remote control! Serving the general public, the
astronomy community, school systems and whoever has a curiosity
for the skies above us.
- Where are your telescopes
located?
At present, there is one site located in New Brunswick, Canada;
there are plans underway for more sites around the world.
-
What kind of telescopes do you have?
At present, all of our telescopes are 10" Schmidt-Cassegrains equipped
with mega pixel monochrome CCD cameras.
They also all have focusers, filter wheels, and spotting cameras
(and more, but these are the main devices that you have control over).
- What kind of computer do I need?
To use MyTelescope.com, you need a computer with an internet connection
(preferably high speed!), and with a "modern" browser - that is, a
browser that supports Java, JavaScript and cookies.
Java is used to run an applet that allows you to control a telescope.
To see if your browser will work, visit
the Browser Check page.
Also, you'll need to enable pop-up windows from our site
- see Why do pop-ups need to be enabled?.
- Why do pop-ups need to be enabled?
Pop-up browser windows are used in a number of places in the MyTelescope
system: on the booking page, in the live telescope control window,
and in a few other places.
If your browser is configured to block pop-ups, you won't be
able to book telescopes or control them.
To configure most browsers to enable MyTelescope pop-up windows,
look in your browser's menus under
either Edit/Preferences/Content or Tools/Options/Content,
and where it says "Block pop-up windows", click on "Exceptions"
and allow both "www.MyTelescope.com" and "nba-site.MyTelescope.com".
For more detailed instructions, see the University of Alabama's
How to Allow Popup Windows
page.
- How do I enable/install/upgrade Java on my computer?
Java is needed in order to run the Live Telescope Control applet.
If Java is not installed on your computer or if it is not enabled
in your browser, you will need to install and enable it.
You can visit the
Browser Check
page to see if you need to do anything.
For information on how to enable Java in your browser, see Sun's
Enable Java in your Web browser
page.
If you need to install or upgrade Java, visit Sun's
Free Java Download
page.
Note that after you have installed or upgraded Java, you will
need to re-start your browser. To do this, close all the
browser windows and then check your system's toolbar tray
(typically at the bottom of the screen) for the browser's icon.
If it is there, it may mean the browser is still running (Quick Launch
feature): right click on the browser icon and select the "Exit" option.
Re-start the browser and then visit the
Browser Check
page again to see if the upgrade / install worked properly.
If the version of Java reported has not changed, it may mean you
need to re-boot your computer for the change to take effect.
- How to I review past sessions?
Images from past sessions may be available for some period
of time after a session is over (though this is not guaranteed:
to ensure your images are not lost, you should download them
when they are taken during the session).
To review past sessions, click on the "My Bookings" link in
the top navigation bar.
You should see a list of your bookings, both past and
future.
Clicking on the "Review Session" link should open a pop-up
window which will start the Live Telescope Control applet
on that session.
Once started, you can right-click on either the primary camera
display or the spotting camera display and select
"Image History" from the menu.
This will list the images taken during that session and
allow you to select and display (and then download)
images.
-
What do I have to do to access
a telescope at MyTelescope.com??
We are trying to keep this as simple as 1,2,3:
- Sign up and specify a user name.
- Purchase viewing credits.
- Book "Live Telescope Control". When your session starts,
you are in control!
Details on each of these steps can be found in the
Getting Started
pages.
-
Can I be notified when the weather
looks good?
Yes - you can ask for "Clear Weather Alerts" to be emailed to
you when the viewing conditions are expected to be good.
Visit the
Account Info/Change Notifications
page, select "Clear Weather Alert"
and click the "Change Notifications" button.
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- How much does it cost?
The cost depends on the telescope. We currently have 10-inch Schmidt Cassegrains. The cost ranges between us$10.50 per hour to us$15.00 per hour depending upon the observing package that you buy.
In general, you purchase credits and
then use those credits to book telescope time.
When you have run out of credits, you can
purchase more.
A user's session costs consist of a setup time cost and a observing time cost.
The setup time is covered by a fixed "base charge" per session
(0.8 credits on
a 10" telescope),
while the observing time cost depends on the length of the session,
the time of day and the viewing conditions (weather).
For a 10" telescope on a clear night, the observing time cost is
10 credits per hour,
while during the day or on cloudy nights is 0 - that is, free -
very useful for practice sessions.
When you are booking a session, the estimated cost of the session
will be displayed before you confirm the booking (once booked
this amount is placed "on reserve");
when your session is over, you can get the details of the final
cost (which will never exceed the cost estimate) by visiting
Account Info/Transactions,
locating the entry for the session you are interested in,
and clicking on the "View Details" link.
This shows a variety of information about the session
including a "Billing Details" section: here you will
find the "Billed Amount", as well as how that amount was
arrived at (the "base charge", the observing time and its corresponding
charge, and any cancellation charges if applicable).
- What is your cancellation policy?
Cancellations by user:
- When a session is cancelled while in progress, normal charges apply for the time already used, plus there is a cancellation fee of 0.5% of the remaining time on reserve for the session.
- When a booking is cancelled less than 4 hours before the scheduled start time, the "base charge" is applied and there is a cancellation fee of 0.5% of the time that was reserved for the booking.
- When a booking is cancelled more than 4 hours before the scheduled start time there is a cancellation fee of 0.5 credits.
- How do I cancel a session?
Sessions can be canceled in a number of ways, from both
the web pages or from the Live Control applet:
- You can go to the "My Bookings" page, locate the session
you want to cancel and click the "Cancel" button;
- Or you can go to the "Book Live Control" page, locate
the session in the schedule, click on it (this should open
a pop-up) and then click on the "Cancel" button;
- Or, if you happen to be in the middle of a session
and are running the Live Control applet, you
can cancel the remainder of the session by
selecting "File/Connect..." and then clicking
on the "Relinquish" button.
- What happens if I do not show up for my booking?
If, after 30 minutes past a scheduled start time, the user has not connected to their session, the session is cancelled. The charge for the session is the same as if a user had cancelled a session after 30 minutes.
- What happens when the weather is bad?
Inappropriate weather conditions at a telescope site or unscheduled downtime will result in closing of observatories for the time interval that is affected. There is no observing time charge for these periods.
- What happens if my session encounters errors?
The MyTelescope.com system is capable of recovering from a number of error conditions relating to the observing devices (for example, filter wheel, telescope, focuser errors). Recovery is usually within a minute or less and sessions can often continue. Users are not charged for recovery time. In addition their session bill is reduced by an amount to compensate for each interruption. A cancellation fee is not charged if a session encounters hardware errors and the user chooses to relinquish the session.
- I've booked a session in advance and now it is time - How do I access it?
To access or "Join" a previously booked session, you
can either visit the "My Bookings" page or the "Book Live Control"
page.
In the "My Bookings" page, there should be a listing
for your session (check the "Start Time" column) - locate it
and click the "Join" button.
This should open a small pop-up window with a red background
(don't close this window!) - this in turn will start the Live
Control applet in another window.
Alternatively, you can visit the "Book Live Control" page,
locate your session (there should be a bright green area representing
your session in the schedule), and click on the green area.
This should open a small pop-up window with a red background
(don't close this window!) - this in turn will start the Live
Control applet in another window.
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The applet window disappeared! What do I do?
First ensure that the window is actually gone - it may be hidden under
other windows or may be minimized: check the task bar at the bottom
of your screen and see if it is mentioned there.
If the applet is actually gone (the most common cause of this
is closing the red "session" browser window), then
follow the instructions for
I've booked a session in advance and now it is time - How do I access it? .
-
How do I locate a star whose name
I know?
If you know the name of a star or deep sky object, you
can search for it using the "Tools & Devices/Star Name Search..."
dialog.
Simply enter the first few letters of the object you
are looking for and click "Search".
It will list the names of all the objects it knows that start with
the text you entered;
you can select objects from the results list to get
details on that object.
Once you've found the object you are looking for, you
can click the "Select" button to highlight it on the Sky Maps.
The applet's database of names
includes common names, Bayer and Flamsteed names,
SAO names and Messier names.
The database includes stars up to 8th magnitude.
-
How do I goto a star that is not known by the applet?
If the "Star Name Search..." tool doesn't know the star
you are looking for and you know its
right ascension and declination,
you can use the "Tools & Devices/Devices/Scope Positioner"
to enter the "RA/Dec".
Then simply click the "Goto" button.
(If you don't know the star's RA/Dec, you can try searching
the internet to find it; in future, the applet may
provide a way of doing this).
-
Why is the applet continually displaying "Server Processing..." and no images?
How can Java's memory pool size be increased?
If the applet is showing "Server Processing..." for a long time and
not displaying any images, it probably means the Java runtime system
doesn't have enough memory to store the images.
This is especially likely to happen if you are taking images
with 2x2 or 1x1 binning.
To solve this problem, Java's configuration can be changed to
allow it to use more memory.
The default setting is typically 64 or 96 Megs (OK for
light use and 4x4 binned images only).
We have found that 128 Megs works well but you can try
256 Megs if your computer has a lot of memory.
To change the configuration, start the "Java Control Panel":
- For Windows:
- Select Start/"Control Panel"
- Select "Java Plug-in".
- (continue with the common directions below)
- For MacOS X:
- Select Applications/Utilities/Java.
- Select "Java Plug-in Control Panel".
- (continue with the common directions below)
- For Linux:
- determine where Java is installed - it may be /opt/jdkXXX
where XXX is the version of Java.
- run /opt/jdkXXX/bin/ControlPanel
- (continue with the common directions below)
Once the "Java Control Panel" is running, do the following:
- Select the Java tab.
- In the "Java Applet RuntimeSettings" area, click "View...".
- In the "Java Runtime Parameter box",
add (or change) a -Xmx parameter:
-Xmx128m
ensuring that there is a space between this and any other
parameters;
also, you can use 256m instead of 128m.
- Click "OK" for the change.
- Close the "Java Control Panel" Window.
- Important: close all browser windows - the browser must
restart for the change to have an effect:
- to get Internet Explorer to restart, it may be
necessary to restart the computer - ug!).
- to get Safari (MacOS) to restart, XXX (need directions - select quit form the navigation bar).
- to get Firefox to restart, select File/Quit and then
start it again.
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