Last updated on 2001 May 23
Q. Who should I contact about using concam data?
A. No one needs to be contacted. All concam data is public domain as soon as it is taken. Discoveries can
be made using concam data without the knowledge or consent of the concam team.
Q. Why didn't the concam at observatory xyz run last night?
A. Concams fail, at least temporarily, for any number of reasons. We will endeavor to keep the latest
status reports online for all concams on the main concam.net page. So far, the reasons for concam failures
are almost always in the software.
Q. When, exactly, does concam start its observations?
A. Concams are programmed to run from Nautical Sunset to Nautical Sunrise. Tables of these values are
provided by the US Naval Observatory and posted on relevant concam pages.
Q. Where is concam.net located?
A. concam.net is located on the campus of Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Michigan,
USA. All concam images you see have likely bounced around the world a bit, going from Hawaii (say), to
Michigan to your location. Since Michigan Tech has an Internet II connection, it does not really matter
where it is: download speeds are likely limited by the internet connection of the user.
Q. How can I get a concam at my observatory and/or university? I cannot afford one myself.
A. At this point (2001 May), we have more requests for concams than our current budget from the NSF
can fill. You can, however, ask to be placed in the concam request pool (CRP). Please send email to
nemiroff@mtu.edu detailing your request, including information about your observatory's latittude and
longitude, the fraction of clear night, the internet bandwidth available to the concam. The decision of
where to deploy the next "free" concam will be based on these attributes as well as the potential scientific
usefulness of the concam to other telescopes operating at your observatory, and the potential
educational/outreach utility of such a concam.
Q. I think I can afford to buy a concam of my own. How much do they cost?
A. The current version of concam, "concam2" costs about $10.K in parts,
about $5.K in labor, and about $5K infrastructure costs (institutional overhead,
shipping, etc.). If you
can afford this we may be able to get you a concam in relatively short order: within a month or two. Even
here priority might be given to sites with good internet connections, a latitude of longitude not yet covered,
etc. We will insist that all data be released into the public domain and placed on concam.net.
Q. I am relatively affluent and I would like to help with the concam project. Do you accept donations?
A. Yes. So far our sponsors are exclusively organizations, primarily the National Science Foundation, but
also including NASA and Michigan Technological University. This does not preclude, however, affluent
individuals from sponsoring individual concams and/or our concam project as a whole. We would be
willing to name individual concams after sponsors. There is a long history of private sponsors in
astronomy, with many telescopes bearing the names of large sponsors (for example: Keck, Yerkes, etc.).
So for $20K, you could sponsor a single concam2, which could then be known as the "Your Name Here"
concam. This would be acknowledged with a plaque on that concam and on the main concam.net page.
Organizations can also sponsor concams.
Sponsoring a concam would allow you a say in where that concam is located. Currently, however, we will insist that data taken with this concam be public domain, and that it be posted on concam.net.
Q. Why would I want to sponsor a concam?
A. What follows is a syrupy sales pitch. Please feel free to go on to the next question if it begins to make
you nauseous. Sponsoring a concam is a way of bringing the sky to the people. Many people are
unfamiliar with the night sky, and/or live in places where a dark night sky is not easily visible. Now
everyone with a web browser can see the best night skies in the world, instantly. We are making real time
astronomy possible for everyone, not just those with professional appointments or personal telescopes.
Additionally, the concam sky is very similar to the sky a human being would see. The dimmest stars visible in concam are very nearly the same dimmest stars visible to the average person. The wide field of view is wider even than human vision. All the bright stars and constellations you might know are there. If you could stand on a high volcano and see possibly the darkest and clearest night sky in the world, it would look just like our concam frames from Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Concam makes it a click away. There are still many many good locations that exist that currently do not have a concam. These is nothing else out there like the concam project.
Conversely, professional astronomers will benefit from concam data, too. They use concam data to see if the night sky is/was clear during their observations with other telescopes. Scientific discoveries including the intensity of meteor showers, the variability of common stars, the light curves for comets, and the existence of transient phenomena coincident with nova, supernova, gamma-ray bursts, may be documented by concams. Perhaps even more exciting is the possibly that a concam might see something new, something that we have not thought about yet. You can help make this happen. Send email to Robert Nemiroff.
Q. How can concam be used educationally?
A. Students can compare the night sky at major observatories with the night sky they see. Why are there
differences? They can watch the Earth rotate by noting how the stars move on any clear concam night.
Why do they appear to circle one point in the sky? They can track planets and see how they move over the
course of the semester. Why do planets sometimes move "backwards'? These questions are just a few of
many that teachers can use to teach basic astronomical concepts using concam data.
Q. Why doesn't concam run during the day?
A. The dynamic range between the Sun and the blue sky is too great. The Sun's light would cause massive
bleadover of pixels and wipe out the entire frame. A static neutral density filter would not help. An
occulting shield would help, but building on would be harder and more expensive than building a concam.
Q. Why doesn't concam run on sidereal time?
A. We will implement this during the summer of 2001. This will allow frames on different nights to image
the same exact piece of sky as on other nights. All concams will run using the same sidereal schedule.
Q. Is concam the smallest professional astronomy observatory in the world?
A. Yes, we believe so. The aperture of a concam2 is about 4 mm. The entire concam fits into a large
briefcase, including optics, CCD, and computer. If you are aware of a smaller observatory, please email us.
We think that concam is also the simplest observatory: the only moving parts is has are its shutter, its hard
disk, and its fan. And they all move in simple circles.
Q. What is the limiting magnitude of a concam?
A. This depends on the duration of the exposure. On a canonical exposure of 3 minutes with a concam2, a
star of visual magnitude 6 should be visible near the image center. A star of visual magnitude 4.5 should
be visible 20 degrees above the horizon.
Q. What is that really bright star near the center of the concam field?
A. We are working on an automated program that will identify bright stars and constellations just by
pointing and/or clicking on them. We expect that this will be ready by 2002.
Q. What is the visual magnitude of star xyz in concam field xyz?
A. We are working on an automated photometry program that will estimate for all the bright stars in all
the bright concam frames. We expect that a preliminary version of this program will be operational before
2002. The output from this program will be a simple ASCII table of magnitudes and errors.
Q. What is the unusual flash in concam frame xyz?
A. We probably don't know . Many times it will be a satellite glint. Other times a meteor. Other times it
will be anyone's guess. You might check to see if the piece of sky that has the flash was visible to any
other concams. If so, and if the flash appears in the same place, it was probably an astronomically distant
event.
Q. How do concams avoid getting wet when it rains?
A. They don't. Concams are weatherproof and rain usually rolls right off of them. In fact, we've learned to
like rain, because it usually cleans the outside lens. Before we deployed the first concam, we worried that
rain would make the outside lens dirty, like a car window. But we found the opposite. Concams have
shown that they can go for years without failing, enduring drenching rains, 100 mph winds, and even snow.
Q. Is there a concam3 in the works?
A. Yes. It is being tested this summer (2001). It is a bit more expensive but has a wider aperture and a
larger CCD. This will allow us to image the sky faster and/or fainter.
Q. Are there even more concams in the works?
A. Yes, but they are only in the theoretical design phases. We find it is interesting to wonder about the
practical limits of all-sky observing. We feel that we are not yet approaching those limits.
Q. Whose idea was concam?
A. The idea of monitoring the night sky is as old as recorded history. Specifically this concam project
came out of conversations between Robert J. Nemiroff and J. Bruce Rafert. Each of us were influenced by
previous events and people. RJN was influenced by the existence of all-sky monitors in the gamma-ray
band (like CGRO's BATSE), existing sky patrol projects like LOTIS, conversations with Bohdan
Paczynski and Christ Ftaclas, and his own public outreach efforts like the
Astronomy Picture of the Day.
Q. How can I cite the concam project in my paper?
A. We have submitted a paper about the concam project to the Publications of the Astronmical Society of
thePacific (PASP) and are currently in the process of editing it in accord with the referee's suggestions.
You can cite us now as; Nemiroff, R. J. et al., PASP, submitted. When this paper has been revised and
cleared the refereeing process, we will release a preliminary version to astro-ph. We expect this will
happen before 2002.