By Suzanne Robicheau |
Heralded as the world’s first Twitter-controlled telescope, the Dr. Ralph Medjuck Telescope in Saint Mary’s Burke-Gaffney Observatory made the cut when Twitter celebrated its 10th birthday by highlighting the top ten unique uses of the social media platform for 2016.
Many observatories use Twitter as a way to reach out
to the public, but it’s generally humans on a keyboard who respond to questions and send pictures. By equipping the Burke-Gaffney Observatory with a twitter-controlled application, Saint Mary’s makes it possible for amateur astronomers and professionals from around the world to use the University’s website to request astronomical photos. Using the Twitter handle @smubgobs, the Dr. Ralph Medjuck Telescope Weather takes space-image requests from Twitter users, tweets back a confirmation, and captures the requested images on the next clear night.
