Late last year Astrochannels announced a world’s first in astronomy. Based in Utah, the concern is capturing live video of deep space objects with a telescope and highly sensitive video cameras. The video feed is then uplinked via direct satellite to the Web, and distributed to the public through a Webcasting provider over the Web for viewing by anybody with a computer and Web access.

The operation has evolved into what the company is referring to as Cosmocasts, which encompasses what we would normally regard as “starparties,” where people gather to enjoy the views through telescopes, almost exclusively through eyepieces. Now Astrochannels is projecting the live video onto large format screens so that audiences who attend the starparties are all able to take in the views at once while at the same time enthusiasts all over the world view in the comfort of their homes.

 “These views are excellent,” says Jason Davis, co-owner and spearhead of the operation. “At fifty feet away from the screen the view is excellent, and then you can stroll up to within twenty feet to resolve details that would be difficult to resolve on a twenty-four inch television up close. Projection is the way to do this.” Live views of objects include galaxies, galaxy clusters, nebulae (massive interstellar clouds of gas and dust), planets, globular clusters, the Moon, the Sun, etc., which can all be viewed in the comfort of home, office, or backyard observatory.

"The views are much like those in some of the best astrophotography, including the Hubble Space Telescope. The only difference is that it is live video, which is much more powerful than a static image.”

Astrochannels is holding one of its Cosmocast Starparties on Saturday, January 12, 2008, at Tecopa Hot Springs, California, and all are invited to attend online or in person. Says Davis, “One of the beautiful elements to this is that anybody can get the feed, project it onto a screen, or run it into a giant screen of any kind, and have their own starparty. It won’t be too long before concerns involved in mobile media operations will be using this as a means of providing an additional form of entertainment.”

“The proverbial bottom-line is that it’s just plain fun,” says Davis. “It’s eye-opening, compelling, and those views are flat-out spectacular. Anybody who participates will see what we mean when they come have a look.”

Late last year Astrochannels announced a world’s first in astronomy. Based in Utah, the concern is capturing live video of deep space objects with a telescope and highly sensitive video cameras. The video feed is then uplinked via direct satellite to the Web, and distributed to the public through a Webcasting provider over the Web for viewing by anybody with a computer and Web access.

The operation has evolved into what the company is referring to as Cosmocasts, which encompasses what we would normally regard as “starparties,” where people gather to enjoy the views through telescopes, almost exclusively through eyepieces. Now Astrochannels is projecting the live video onto large format screens so that audiences who attend the starparties are all able to take in the views at once while at the same time enthusiasts all over the world view in the comfort of their homes.

 “These views are excellent,” says Jason Davis, co-owner and spearhead of the operation. “At fifty feet away from the screen the view is excellent, and then you can stroll up to within twenty feet to resolve details that would be difficult to resolve on a twenty-four inch television up close. Projection is the way to do this.” Live views of objects include galaxies, galaxy clusters, nebulae (massive interstellar clouds of gas and dust), planets, globular clusters, the Moon, the Sun, etc., which can all be viewed in the comfort of home, office, or backyard observatory.

"The views are much like those in some of the best astrophotography, including the Hubble Space Telescope. The only difference is that it is live video, which is much more powerful than a static image.”

Astrochannels is holding one of its Cosmocast Starparties on Saturday, January 12, 2008, at Tecopa Hot Springs, California, and all are invited to attend online or in person. Says Davis, “One of the beautiful elements to this is that anybody can get the feed, project it onto a screen, or run it into a giant screen of any kind, and have their own starparty. It won’t be too long before concerns involved in mobile media operations will be using this as a means of providing an additional form of entertainment.”

“The proverbial bottom-line is that it’s just plain fun,” says Davis. “It’s eye-opening, compelling, and those views are flat-out spectacular. Anybody who participates will see what we mean when they come have a look.”