Comments on: DotAstronomy : Explore the solar system http://chrislintott.net/2008/09/25/dotastronomy-explore-the-solar-system/ The Universe as seen from the perspective of an astronomical researcher, presenter and writer. Tue, 22 Dec 2009 10:28:22 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: Nereid http://chrislintott.net/2008/09/25/dotastronomy-explore-the-solar-system/comment-page-1/#comment-96614 Nereid Wed, 01 Oct 2008 22:24:09 +0000 http://chrislintott.net/2008/09/25/dotastronomy-explore-the-solar-system/#comment-96614 Galaxy Zoo has its own examples ... gumbosea's work on possible gravitational lenses, laihro's on Peas, to take just two. Then there's all the sungrazing comets found by armchair astronomers, using a wide variety of techniques, from online SOHO images (actually data in digital form), which has spurred trawls through historical records to find observations of some of these as early as 4 BCE (among other things). The ginormous volumes of high quality astronomy digital data, available for free to almost anyone, anywhere in the world, lets amateurs do real science and (very likely) produce results at least as important as those from professionals only a half century or so ago. Galaxy Zoo has its own examples … gumbosea’s work on possible gravitational lenses, laihro’s on Peas, to take just two.

Then there’s all the sungrazing comets found by armchair astronomers, using a wide variety of techniques, from online SOHO images (actually data in digital form), which has spurred trawls through historical records to find observations of some of these as early as 4 BCE (among other things).

The ginormous volumes of high quality astronomy digital data, available for free to almost anyone, anywhere in the world, lets amateurs do real science and (very likely) produce results at least as important as those from professionals only a half century or so ago.

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