Do astronomers still work nights?

Question

I know in the good old days before digital cameras astronomers would stay up all night looking through the sky. Nowadays, I'd imagine they just program the motorized telescope and digital camera and shoot all night automatically. That way they can sleep all night like a normal person and look at their picture "prizes" the next day. Am I right, or am I way off?

Answer 1

Darn right we do! Hey, its not easy catching those ancient photons. no matter film or digital, it has to be dark to see where to aim the telescope

Answer 2

Some professional astronomers are lazy and don't go to the telescope, it's true. They let the telescope operators do the "grunt work." But if something goes wrong with the experiment (and something is always going wrong), then they will lose data because the operators have no idea what your experiment is, or what the best, fastest way to get around the problem while maintaining data integrity for your experiment might be.

Other astronomers actually care about their data and will be on-hand so that when something breaks, they can make a decision as to whether to fix it, or go on with the experiment in some other mode, and then to actually go do it.

Actually, I've done it both ways. At the VLA, for instance, the astronomer can't do a damn thing if something breaks, so there's not much point in physically going. At an optical observatory, if a little cloud sets itself over your favorite object, you need to have prepared lists of backup objects/experiments so that you can go outside, see what part of the sky is clear and have something ready to do in that direction. So you go.

Answer 3

Some people do - there are robotic telescopes that will do just that for you. A few are Super-LOTIS and KAIT - professional telescopes doing real science, robotically.

Other telescopes can be run remotely - say, from your home wherever, you can run the telescope over the internet. But that still involves staying up all night.

But most professional astronomers, when using a telescope, actually travel to the telescope and stay up all night running it. These are large, very expensive and percise pieces of equipment that must be monitored all the time to make sure nothing goes wrong. Even though we can now sit inside a nice warm control room looking at computer screens instead of peering through an eyepeice in the freezing dome, we're still up all night and sleeping through the day whenever we're on an 'observing run'.

Answer 4

As a person who has worked in amateur, educational, and professional observatories I would like to say yes and no to your question.
First the amateur community covers more of the sky in one night than any professional observatory. Those devoted to the science of astronomy spend hundreds of hours at their telescopes each and every year. These amateurs make most of the discoveries of comets, asteroids, and even nova and super novas. They then report their observations to the professional observatories who then (if they think your observation warrents it) move the equipment to that area of the sky to observe the object.
Once the equipment is aligned they view the sky on a video screen exactly what the scope is looking at. This is being done in real-time. Once the object is located and verified on the monitor, photographic and video equipment is then incorporated to make a permanent record of the object. Sometimes the observatory must "look" at the same object many nights in a row (up to one year). The photos are then placed into a comparator to see the actual movement of the object with respect to the starfield. The reason they have to observe so many nights is that Earth based scope have on gigantic problem, weather. You cant see, photograph, or record video through clouds. That is why most observatories are located on tops of mountains.
There are an extremely limited number of observatories in the world and most have contracted time for certain projects from many of the educational institutes in the world. This means that with all of that automated equipment, and all those multi-million dollar facilities, the amateur in the backyard accounts for most of the discoveries.
Yes-Astronomers do still 'see' through telescopes at night. They spend time with their families and sleep during the daylight hours and get up and prepare for another night as the Sun goes down. It is extremely exciting and worth a trip to your local observatory just to see how it works.

Answer 5

Modern professional telescopes are increasingly computerized and automatic, and there are some fully automated observatories that do relatively simple survey-type observing programs autonomously. The cost of most professional telescopes, in both initial capital expense and ongoing maintenence and operations, is so high that paying a few humans to operate and monitor the observations is a small fraction of the total budget. A night of observing at a major observatory is so precious that most astronomers still monitor the operations, perhaps from a remote site over the internet, or (for big-shot professors) at minimum delegate that duty to their postdocs and grad students.

Answer 6

If you're talking about amateur astronomers who take pictures through their telescopes, yes, many of them do it that way. With automated scopes, scripting software, and even automated domes, it's very possible to do things as you've described. But many also still sit at or near their telescopes. It's a bit of a money and time investment to get a telescope and mount that can operate accurately enough to go unattended, especially when you get into the details of finding a guide star, focusing the scope, framing the target, etc. I'm very much into this hobby... I do everything pretty much manually up until I actually start taking the photos. Once I'm at that point, I can usually leave things unattended for several hours at a time.

Answer 7

when you book time at a major telescope you are expected to be there in person weather you look at anything or not.

Answer 8

"Do astronomers still work nights?"

No. Their wives get too ticked off.

Answer 9

Way off...What they do can't be pre-programed...