Proposal: A Network of Amateur Observatories
Crowdsourcing Continuous Sky Coverage
by The ObservatoryA proposal for a distributed network of small, automated telescopes operated by amateur astronomers, providing continuous, redundant coverage of the entire visible sky for transient event detection.
Motivation
Professional all-sky surveys are sparse in temporal coverage. A coordinated network of amateur observatories could fill the gaps, catching transient events — comets, novae, satellite flares — that single instruments miss.
Architecture
Each node consists of:
- A 100mm refractor on a motorized equatorial mount
- A low-light CMOS camera
- A single-board computer running open-source acquisition software
- A GPS module for time synchronization
Nodes upload detections to a central server, which correlates observations across the network.
Coverage Model
With 200 nodes distributed across longitudes, the network achieves >95% temporal coverage of the night sky at any given moment, with a median detection latency under 90 seconds.
Call for Participants
We seek amateur astronomers willing to host a node. Hardware cost is estimated at $400 per node. Software and data access are free and open.
Saturn
Find it in the sky