max planck institut informatik
An Augmented Reality System for Astronomical Observations
Andrei Linţu, Marcus Magnor
In: Procedeeings of IEEE Virtual Reality 2006, accepted for publication.
[paper pdf] [color plate pdf] [bib] [movie]
Augmented Astronomical Telescope
Andrei Linţu, Marcus Magnor
In: Procedeeings of Second GI-Workshop VR/AR 2005. 4th Best
Paper Award.
[pdf] [bib] [presentation slides] [presentation movie]
Anyone who gazed through the eyepiece of an astronomical telescope knows that except for the Moon and the planets, extra-solar astronomical objects are hard to observe. This is mainly due to their low surface brightness, but also depends on the seeing, sky brightness and telescope aperture. We propose a system which projects images of astronomical objects (with focus on nebulae and galaxies), animations or additional information directly into the eyepiece view of an astronomical telescope. As the telescope orientation is tracked continuously, the projected image is adapted in real-time to the object which is currently visible through the eyepiece. This way, visitors to public observatories have the possibility to experience the richness of deep sky objects while directly gazing at them through a telescope.
Screenshots of nebulae. Left: M57 (Ring Nebula) - Planetary Nebula. Right: NGC 2261 (Hubble's Variable Nebula) - Reflection Nebula. Apparent magnitude, surface brightness and size are provided for the observed objects. In both cases a magnification of 714x is used for observing.
Screenshots of solar system objects. Left: Saturn and its brightest natural satellites. Right: Jupiter and the Galilean moons. In both cases identification of the satellites (which change relative position fast from one observing night to another) is simplified by the highlighted names. Magnification used for observing is 357x.
Schematic System Description. The main components of the proposed system and its interconnections are highlighted in this figure.
Left: The telescope used in our application and its hand controller unit. Right: The projection module together with the 32 mm eyepiece.
The projection unit mounted on the telescope.
