My Take: Twitter as an International Observatory?

The scoop: Adrian West is a member of the UK's Newbury Astronomical Society and has become something of an expert in communicating astronomical events via the Internet.

In August, he coordinated the highly successful social networking #MeteorWatch campaign. Adrian found out that Twitter was the perfect way to rapidly communicate astronomical information as well as reaching out to an international audience. In a sense, Twitter had become an extreme observatory in its own right, not composed of CCDs and lenses, but of an international array of individuals, each one reporting meteor events as they happened.

The Power to Impress

In the minds of many people astronomy, both amateur and professional, is associated with boffins, nerds and geeks. However, it seems that in spite of this there are a huge number of people of all ages, and from all walks of life, who have a basic interest in the night sky.

Most people are aware of the night sky and, if presented in the right way, even a mediocre view has the power to impress the most jaded of teenagers. If the interest is there, there are many ways we can access information about the heavens, reading books or magazines, watching TV and films, listening to radio or podcasts, or even joining an astronomy club or organization.

These are excellent ways of learning about astronomy and cannot to be replaced; however a lot of the information is old news and the format will not suit everyone.

In recent years 'social networking' sites such as Twitter have appeared and have rapidly become popular. This is largely because they are simple and easy to use and provide almost instant access to up-to-date information, comments and views. One the most attractive things about Twitter is that you can ask a question and within moments, receive an answer. This ideal for someone with a casual interest, or a more serious astronomer.

Twitter as an Astronomical Tool?

Many astronomers, from amateurs to astronauts, use Twitter to let the public know what they are currently doing, what they are looking at, or what people themselves can look out for. Images and links to further information, articles and websites can be included in the tweets to provide more information. In less than 140 characters (the maximum length of a message or "tweet") people share their experiences and knowledge.

All this adds up to an unbeatable wealth of information, much of it 'hot off the press.' For example, news of the recent Jupiter impact appeared on Twitter over 12 hours before some UK Astronomy organisations sent out their e-mail alerts of the event.

In May 2009, on the spur of the moment, Newbury Astronomical Society in the UK decided to run a #MoonWatch event using twitter. For a few hours we posted images of the moon and planets taken that evening together with advice on how people could see these for themselves. We used a 'hashtag' -- "#MoonWatch" -- to link the posts so that anyone could view all the tweets simply by entering this hashtag.

Early Success

To our surprise the event attracted hundreds of participants who were delighted with the current pictures and excited that they could actually go out and see these things live, for themselves.

We were so pleased with the response that we decided to link up with IYA2009UK to host a #Meteorwatch for the Perseid meteor shower in August 2009. This event was more widely publicised and we thought we knew what to expect. However, the results exceeded our wildest expectations.

Promoting astronomy is the goal of many amateur societies and publicly funded organisations. Over the last 15 years or so Newbury Astronomical Society has organised numerous astronomy events, large and small, and reached a few thousand of the general public.

The #Meteorwatch event reached several thousand people on both nights! The sheer size of the event was staggering, and it could not have been done any other way than through Twitter.

#Meteorwatch attracted so much attention it became the number one most discussed topic on Twitter on the first evening and continued to be a trending topic for several days after. Both events involved 'tweeting' images or video and other information live.

Collaboration is Key

Meteorwatch was organised by Newbury Astronomical Society (@NewburyAS) and the International Year of Astronomy 2009 UK (@Astronomy2009UK), with support from @KSastro, @Zarquil, @philipstobbart, @Jodrellbank, @astronomyblog, @Discovery_Space, @DrLucyRogers and many more worldwide, who helped with the event and made it truly successful. The key to the success of both of these events was because they were simple to join in with, and people could feel they were participating in something that was happening at that moment – live, around the world.

There will be another Moonwatch in October and another Meteorwatch for the Geminid meteor shower in December. Both are hoped to be as successful as the previous events, but the main point is that we want people to have fun and enjoy the night sky with us.

Astronomy isn't just for the nerds, or the elite, it is for everyone no matter what their interest or level of experience. I do not claim to be an expert astronomer, just average, but I enjoy all aspects of astronomy, from the telescope or the arm chair. What I enjoy the most is getting people fired up about astronomy, making it simple and making it fun!

Discovery Space also chatted with the Newbury AS Chairman, Richard Fleet, about how Twitter has influenced astronomy outreach.

The views expressed are the author's alone and do not represent the official position of the Discovery Channel.

Article posted September 8, 2009.

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