An Augmented Reality System for Astronomical Observations Andrei Linţu, Marcus Magnor

Andrei Linţu and Marcus Magnor: "An Augmented Reality System for Astronomical Observations", in Proc. IEEE Virtual Reality (VR), pp. 119–126, March 2006. [pdf] [bib]

Abstract

Anyone who has gazed through the eyepiece of an astronomical telescope knows that, with the exception of the Moon and the planets, extra-solar astronomical objects are disappointing to observe
visually. This is mainly due to their low surface brightness, but also depends on the visibility, sky brightness and telescope aperture. We propose a system which projects images of astronomical
objects (with focus on nebulae and galaxies), animations and additional information directly into the eyepiece view of an astronomical telescope. As the telescope orientation is queried continuously,
the projected image is adapted in real-time to the currently visible field of view. For projection, a custom-built video projection module with high contrast and low maximum luminance value was developed. With this technology visitors to public observatories have the option to experience the richness of faint astronomical objects while directly looking at them through a telescope.

TU Braunschweig - Fakultät für Mathematik und Informatik - Computer Graphics - Publications - An Augmented Reality System for Astronomical Observations