This page provides an index to a group of homepages describing an historic breakthrough in using the internet as an integral part of a significant astronomical study, carried out in the mid-90's by astronomers in Kunming, Yunnan Province, Republic of China, with cooperation of a group of internet "Chat" users in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Three astronomers in China developed an idea to enhance their effectiveness in using their scheduled time on the telescope in Kunming, China. Their first step was to conduct a test of the system which they had worked out with their internet friends.
The project is intended to allow an astronomer to direct the use ofthe telescope at the time alloted to him from a remote site. So the title of the project is "Remote Presence Observation." The second step in the project was to conduct the live observations which involved uploading the telescope images to an FTP site in Pocatello, Idaho, USA, from which all participants could view them on their own computer screens.
As Dr. Kaifan Ji participated in Internet Relay Chat, and discussed aspects of his work, the idea for using IRC as a medium of communication developed. In talking via IRC with "kayj," the operator of the above-mentioned channels on the Chatnet IRC network, the idea was worked out and the initial trial scheduled. Coincidentally, he used the nickname or chat channel "handle" of KJ, his initials, while conversing on these IRC channels, so these two are known to their IRC friends as KJ and kayj!
Other members of the IRC channels helped out; "Vinny," (Vince Wardhaugh) from Brampton, Ontario, Canada, and "Renegade," (Adrian Jupe) located in Southampton, England, helped Professor Chu get set up to participate in the conversation. [The "Official" RPO site at that time was provided by Renegade, where he worked, at the site of a UK internet service provider. After he changed jobs, the official site moved to a server at Dixie College, in St. George, UT, and now has been moved to this Yahoo! Geocities site. "Geo," (Jim Seamans) the operator of the Pocatello, Idaho Chatnet server provided space on his FTP server for pictures of the telescope observations to be stored.
If you would like to download any of the images from this project to your own system, you can, of course, simply right click your mouse on the image, and save the image from one of these pages to your own disk storage area. The original FTP upload site is no longer accessible for this purpose.
Besides checking out this site, you may also wish to visit the homepages of Chatnet friends of the project. First, here is a link to the homepage put up by Vinny, who is in real life, Vince Wardhaugh, a computer software specialist. Vinny was very helpful in the online meeting to arrange for the historic internet transmission of these telescope images. Vinny is extremely interested in astronomy, and was helpful to some of the principals involved in China by helping them with technical questions regarding setup of their PC's and use of the Chatnet methodology.
The catalyst for the entire project was kayj (Georgia Philbrick) who was, at the time, the chief IRC operator of the Chatnet channels where all this came together. Kayj is a nurse, who provides skilled nursing care for a small group of adults in her home. Her patients are persons requiring what is called "adult foster care." Without her involvement and resourcefulness in locating members of her channel who were willing to help, the project may not have come together when it did.
Vinny is the one who reminded all the participants that the persons involved are located in China, The US, Canada and the United Kingdom... so we agreed this event is a historic one in Sino-North American-UK person-to-person relations, multi-national in character! Vinny and bigfella were the first persons in North America, and renegade the first in the UK, to have pictures from these historic astronomical observations in China on a homepage, for others to view.
Go back to the top of this document.