Tom Field, the author of RSpec, has made it his goal to spread the word about the exciting world amateur astronomical spectroscopy.
He finds that most amateurs still think that spectroscopy requires prohibitively expensive equipment, a mountain-top observatory, and an advanced degree in astrophysics. That might have been true many years ago. But, the tools available these days make it easy for almost anyone to capture astonishing spectra. There are teenagers as well as 75 year olds who are doing spectroscopy (and Tom knows of one 90 year old!). So why not you?!
To reach as many amateurs as possible, Tom offers to be a speaker at astronomy club meetings. Even if you’re half way around the world, if your club has internet access in its meeting room, he can appear with live video using professional, web-based tools. Tom uses web-seminar software called Cisco WebEx (link) that is like Skype, but even more powerful because it’s for businesses.
These presentations are totally free of charge. These are not software sales demonstrations. Tom’s talks focus on the history of spectroscopy, the science, exciting sample results, and how-to-get-started.
Click on the image below to see a short video preview of Tom giving a presentation over the web. This is video and audio quality that you’d see at your club meeting.
Email Tom (link) to schedule your presentation or to set up a short sample meeting so you can see this remarkable technology in action.
Below is an email from a board member at the Riverside Astronomical Society(link). This highly respected club organizes RTMC and PATS.
“I had been very leery of how your remote presentation was going to go. I have real high standards for the presentation for our meetings. That quality is one of the things that make the club so good. At any rate, I was pleasantly surprised at how it turned out. I still prefer live speakers (not that you were not live, but, well, you know), but not by as much as I thought. The technology was much better than I anticipated. I had a sense you were there, even only as your little [live video] picture in the corner. Everything seemed normal enough.” – Alex McConahay
Here’s an email we just received form the president of the Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston (link):
“Tom,
Thanks very much for doing your webinar remote presentation to Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston tonight! I got many positive comments after the meeting – members were really engaged and attentive during your presentation. To calibrate these positive comments, we get very high quality professional speakers for many meetings. With your high energy level and humorous banter from time to time, no one was in danger going to sleep during your talk.
You have raised a lot of interest in our club having more remote presentations like yours in the future. People were very positive about the whole web-talk experience, besides your specific talk. Before the meeting, we were a bit worried whether an over-the-web presentation could entertain our audience of about 50 people. But, it really worked out well. This potentially opens up a new source of speakers for us (although it’s clear that another speaker would have to be as skillful and experienced as you were to make this work well in the future).” – Bernie Kosicki
And finally, demonstrating that meetings can be done across oceans: From South Africa, here’s the Chairman of the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa (link), Pretoria Centre:
“Good day, Tom, [Ed. note: they're so polite down there, aren't they?!]
I wish to thank you for a wonderful experience with the on-line presentation. It exceeded my wildest expectations, and everyone was very impressed with the quality of both the presentation as well as the flow of data.
It was truly as if you were right there with us. The video was smooth and audio was very good. No lags or dips that we could make out.
Now I can relax, and go to to sleep with a job well done!” – Johan Smit
Tom is well-known in the astronomical community for his lively and interesting presentations. With contagious enthusiasm, he clearly explains his topic, and shows great example spectra of objects that are familiar to his audience. Tom has been a speaker at NEAF 2011, PATS 2010, PATS 2011, and OPT’s SCAE. He has also given presentations over the web to numerous clubs, including the Boeing Employees Astronomical Society, Austin Astronomical Society, RTMC, Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston, and others. He would be happy to get you in touch with some board members of these clubs if you would like to hear their opinions first-hand.
Tom is a lecturer as part of the Astronomy Outreach Network: link.
Dennis Di Cicco of Sky & Telescope Magazine did a great ten minute video interview (link) of Tom at the NEAF conference earlier this year:
Click to see Sky & Telescope Interview
Tom’s 4-page article on spectroscopy appeared in the August 2011 issue of Sky & Telescope:
