Comunication
AREA DE ASTRONOMIA

DIF-FUS Universidad de sonora

The most important thing for an observatory that operates remote controlled is the communication. This certainly is not easy. Nevertheless, nowadays space ships are handled hundreds of millions of kilometers in planetary exploration and this experience can be applied to the operation of a telescope 200 km away.

The communication between Control Base  in Hermosillo and Magdalena with the Carl Sagan Observatory at 'Cerro Azul', must be able to:

1) Maintain an effective and reliable monitoring system at the observatory working fulltime under any weather conditions.

2) Execute in real time any instructions in order to operate the telescope, computers and peripheral instrumentation.

3) Broadcast video and images during the solar observation.

4) Broadcast images during the stellar observation.

In oder to acomplish the last goals the following needs to be done:

a) A relayer for radio-modem communication will be installed at the Mountain range of 'La Madera', for the broadcasting of information.

b) Two private lines for communication will be installed from the Mountain range of 'La Madera'  to the observation and operation bases in Hermosillo and Magdalena de Kino.

c) Decoders will be installed in the three main points for broadcasting of video image during the solar observation in MPEG format.

d) Backup systems will be installed for any emergency.

INVEST IN THE FUTURE...

Last Update: January 22, 2000.