BitTitan launches new cloud-based automation tool for IT teams – BetaNews

Faced with an ever changing landscape, skills shortages and budget constraints, IT departments are increasingly seeking to automate repetitive tasks.

Automation specialist BitTitan is looking to capitalize on this with the launch of an IT toolbox designed to centralize and automate IT tasks for more effective management of resources, security and data governance.

Called Voleer, the cloud-based solution enables IT teams to schedule and automate repetitive tasks, reducing the need for tedious manual methods and boosting time management.

"As the demands of IT solution providers have increased, the need for reliable tools to streamline tasks for efficient IT management has also risen," says Geeman Yip, BitTitan founder and CEO. "Voleer enables IT professionals to leverage trusted, out-of-the-box tools that run in a unified, secure environment, with unparalleled efficiency that allows companies to realize value sooner."

Voleer needs no additional deployments or coding for its ready-to-use tools. It allows real-time reporting and alerting that improves visualization of business intelligence, so IT teams can better leverage data to inform business decisions. It also allows teams to easily identify compliance and security gaps, as well as monitoring cloud usage costs. The platform also enhances security by enabling activity-based access control, which limits access to high-risk credentials, providing access only to what people need for the action they need to perform.

There's a dedicated website where you can find out more and try out Voleer with a free account, there will also be a webinarto introduce the platform on July 28 at 11am PST.

Photo Credit: Wright Studio/Shutterstock

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BitTitan launches new cloud-based automation tool for IT teams - BetaNews

Industrial Automation Software Market 2020: Wipro, Honeywell International, ABB, Parsec Automation, SAP, Hitachi, and Others – Cole of Duty

The latest report published by Regal Intelligence on Industrial Automation Software market provides crucial market insights along with detailed segmentation analysis. The report examines key driving factors that are expected to drive the growth of the market.

Global Industrial Automation Software Market Research Report gives knowledgeable information on various market situations, for example, potential development factors, factors controlling the development, market opportunities and dangers to the worldwide market. Also, the report broadly centers around competitive analysis of Industrial Automation Software Market. The competitive analysis segment incorporates key manufacturers, fresh players, providers, market strategies, potential chances, operation landscape and analysis of the trends of the Industrial Automation Software market. The market results are centered around current market scenario. To gauge and predict the degree of competition in this market. This report will likewise support all the manufacturers and speculators to have a superior comprehension of the investments to know where the market is heading.

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Leading players of Industrial Automation Software including:Wipro, Honeywell International, ABB, Parsec Automation, SAP, Hitachi, TCS, Dassault Systmes, WERUM IT Solutions, Rockwell Automation, Emerson Electric, HCL Technologies, Accenture

On the basis of product, we research the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate, primarily split intoSCADA SoftwareDCS SoftwareMES SoftwareHMI SoftwarePLC Software

For the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rateProcess Industries

Key Highlights of the Industrial Automation Software Market

Key Strategies adopted by major players Global driving factors of the market Developed and emerging markets Comprehensive description of the international players Market dynamic factors affecting the global market Evaluation of niche business areas Driving and restraining factors of the market growth Market share analysis

Moreover, the report briefly studies the performance of both historical records along with the recent trends. It includes a complete analysis of different attributes such as manufacturing base, type, and size. This report evaluates the market segmentation along with the competitive landscape at global as well as regional level. The report also discusses about the rising need for Industrial Automation Software market.

Reasons for Buying this Report

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Report on Global Industrial Automation Software Market 2020 comprises of 10 Sections in Table as follows:

The Industrial Automation Software-market report reads pin-direct analysis for changing serious dynamics with reference towards changing elements that drives or limits market development. The report is comprehensively visualized to forecast the market point of view and opportunities where it has an extension to develop in future. Basically, the report segregates the ability of market in the present and the future possibilities from various edges in detail.

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Industrial Automation Software Market 2020: Wipro, Honeywell International, ABB, Parsec Automation, SAP, Hitachi, and Others - Cole of Duty

Intelligent Process Automation Market : Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2026 – 3rd Watch News

Kenneth Research has published a detailed report on Intelligent Process Automation Market which has been categorized by market size, growth indicators and encompasses detailed market analysis on macro trends and region-wise growth in North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Middle East & Africa region. The report also includes the challenges that are affecting the growth of the industry and offers strategic evaluation that is required to boost the growth of the market over the period of 2019-2026.

The report covers the forecast and analysis of the Intelligent Process Automation Market on a global and regional level. The study provides historical data from 2015 to 2019 along with a forecast from 2019-2026 based on revenue (USD Million). In 2018, the worldwide GDP stood at USD 84,740.3 Billion as compared to the GDP of USD 80,144.5 Billion in 2017, marked a growth of 5.73% in 2018 over previous year according to the data quoted by International Monetary Fund. This is likely to impel the growth of Intelligent Process Automation Marketover the period 2019-2026.

The Final Report will cover the impact analysis of COVID-19 on this industry.

Request To Download Sample of This Strategic Report:https://www.kennethresearch.com/sample-request-10307100

Intelligent process automation is the application of artificial intelligence and related new technologies, which include computer vision, cognitive automation, machine learning, and robotic process automation. It is integration of machine learning and robotic process automation, which assists the human work and has the tendency to improve over a period without any command. Intelligent process automation consists of five technologies. These include robotics process automation, smart workflow, machine learning, natural language generation, and cognitive agents.

Organizations are implementing the IPA worldwide to run their business cost-effectively. IPA provides several business benefits, like human-robot orchestration, automation of repetitive and scheduled tasks, ensuring sound governance and reducing risk compliance, process visibility across the whole customer journey, and business agility and speeding up the rapidly changing business processes. The IPA enables companies to identify, model, assess, evaluate, improve, optimize, manage and automate different company procedures to improve their efficiency.

Automation is revolutionizing business processes, both customer-facing, and back-office. Growing demand for automation-led transformation programs with the help of a digital workforce is one major factor driving the market growth. Technological advancements from robotic process automation to Artificial Intelligence (AI) are transforming the landscape of automation. The implementation is majorly focused on productivity, operational efficiency, and building new revenue-generating opportunities.

The Asia Pacific region is expected to have the highest CAGR in the intelligent process automation market during the forecast period, due to its growing technology adoption. This is due to the presence of rapidly growing economies, such as China and India. Rapid economic development, globalization, digitalization, and the increased adoption of cloud-based technologies are expected to drive the growth of the intelligent automation market in the Asia Pacific region.The key players profiled in the intelligent process automation market analysis are IBM Corporation, Atos, Tech Mahindra Limited, Accenture PLC, Tata Consultancy Services Limited, Infosys Limited, Capgemini SE, Cognizant, Genpact, and Xerox Corporation. These players have adopted various strategies to increase their market penetration and strengthen their position in the industry.

KEY MARKET SEGMENTSBy Component*Service*Solution

By Technology*Natural Language Processing*Machine & Deep Learning*Neural Networks*Virtual Agents*Mini Bots*Computer Vision*Others.

By Deployment Mode*Cloud*On-premise

End Users (Revenue, USD Billion*Telecom and IT*Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI)*Transport and Logistics*Healthcare*Media and Entertainment*Manufacturing*Retail and ecommerce*Others

By Organization Size*Large Enterprises*SMEs

By Regional AnanlysisNorth America*U.S.*Canada

Europe*Germany*UK*France*Italy*Spain*Belgium*Russia*Netherlands*Rest of Europe

Asia-Pacific*China*India*Japan*Korea*Singapore*Malaysia*Indonesia*Thailand*Philippines*Rest of Asia-Pacific

Latin America*Brazil*Mexico*Argentina*Rest of LATAM

Middle East & Africa*UAE*Saudi Arabia*South Africa*Rest of MEA

Key companies profiled in the report include Atos Group, Blue Prism Group PLC, Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation, ExlService Holdings, Inc., Genpact Limited, IBM Corporation, Tech Mahindra Limited, Infosys Limited, Wipro Limited, SAP SE, Accenture PLC, Pegasystems, Inc., CGI, Inc., and Tata Consultancy Services Ltd.

Click Here to Download Sample Report >>https://www.kennethresearch.com/sample-request-10307100

Competitive Analysis:The Intelligent Process Automation Market report examines competitive scenario by analyzing key players in the market. The company profiling of leading market players is included in this report with Porters five forces analysis and Value Chain analysis. Further, the strategies exercised by the companies for expansion of business through mergers, acquisitions, and other business development measures are discussed in the report. The financial parameters which are assessed include the sales, profits and the overall revenue generated by the key players of Market.

Key points covered in this report:*The historical and current data is provided in the report based on which the future projections are made and the industry analysis is performed.*The import and export details along with consumption value and production capability of every region is mentioned in the report.*Porters five forces analysis, value chain analysis, SWOT analysis are some additional important parameters used for the analysis of market growth.*The report provides the clients with the facts and figures about the market on the basis of evaluation of the industry through primary and secondary research methodologies.

ANSWERED TO THE FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS :

WHAT IS THE SCOPE OF THE REPORT?This market study covers the global and regional market with an in-depth analysis of the overall growth prospects in the market. Furthermore, it sheds light on the comprehensive competitive landscape of the global market. The report further offers a dashboard overview of leading companies encompassing their successful marketing strategies, market contribution, recent developments in both historic and present contexts.

WHAT ARE THE KEY SEGMENTS IN THE MARKET?*By product type*By End User/Applications*By Technology*By Region

WHICH MARKET DYNAMICS AFFECTS THE BUSINESS?The report provides a detailed evaluation of the market by highlighting information on different aspects which include drivers, restraints, opportunities, and threats. This information can help stakeholders to make appropriate decisions before investing.

Key Topic Covered in this Report*Market Growth Opportunities*Leading Market Players*Market Size and Growth Rate*Market Growth Drivers*Company Market Share*Market Trends and Technological

The Intelligent Process Automation Market report highlight the economy, past and emerging trend of industry, and availability of basic resources. Furthermore, the market report explains development trend, analysis of upstream raw materials, downstream demand, and current market dynamics is also carried out. In the end, the report makes some important proposals for a new project of Intelligent Process Automation Market before evaluating its possibility.

About Kenneth Research:Kenneth Research is a reselling agency which focuses on multi-client market research database. The primary goal of the agency is to help industry professionals including various individuals and organizations gain an extra edge of competitiveness and help them identify the market trends and scope. The quality reports provided by the agency aims to make decision making easier for industry professionals and take firm decisions which helps them to form strategies after complete assessment of the market. Some of the industries under focus include healthcare & pharmaceuticals, ICT & Telecom, automotive and transportation, energy and power, chemicals, FMCG, food and beverages, aerospace and defense and others. Kenneth Research also focuses on strategic business consultancy services and offers a single platform for the best industry market research reports.

Contact UsKenneth ResearchEmail: [emailprotected]Phone: +1 313 462 0911Cell Banking Outsourcing MarketGrain Fumigants MarketSteam Methane Reforming MarketGlass Recycling MarketLymphoma Drugs MarketOncology Drugs MarketCloud Infrastructure Testing MarketElderly and Disabled Assistive Devices MarketEnergy Harvesting MarketChemical Catalyst MarketMicroneedle Drug Delivery Systems MarketHigh-pressure Processing (HPP) Equipment Market

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Intelligent Process Automation Market : Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2026 - 3rd Watch News

Intelligent Process Automation Market Business Growth Tactics, Future Strategies, competitive Outlook, Industrial Demand and Opportunities – 3rd Watch…

For in depth perceptive of market and competitive landscape, this Intelligent Process Automation market research report serves a lot of parameters and detailed data about this industry. The report offers you steadfast knowledge and information of revolutionizing market landscape, what already exists in the market, future trends or what the market expects, the competitive environment, and strategies to plan to outshine the competitors. This information and market insights assists with maximizing or minimizing the production of goods depending on the conditions of demand. Various market related parameters considered in this Intelligent Process Automation business research report helps for better decision making.

Global Intelligent Process Automation Market is driven by better optimization in the organization and to gain a major competitive edge within the market. Intelligent process automation is more focused towards reducing the costs and increasing the revenue. This is projecting a rise in estimated value from USD 7.34 billion in 2018 to an estimated value of USD 19.79 billion by 2026, registering a CAGR of 13.2% in the forecast to 2026.

Get FREE Sample Report + All Related Graphs & Charts [emailprotected] https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/request-a-sample?dbmr=global-intelligent-process-automation-market&AM

Major Industry Competitors:Intelligent Process Automation Market

Few of the major competitors currently working in intelligent process automation market are Automation Anywhere, Inc., UiPath., Blue Prism, Pegasystems Inc., AntWorks, NICE Robotic Automation, KOFAX INC., softmotive, SAP SE, AutomationEdge, Eggplant, LarcAI, Kryon Systems, Autologyx Ltd., Echelon, Sanbot Innovation Technology. Ltd, Cinnamon, Inc. and Crowd Computing Systems, Inc

Revealing the Competitive scenario

In todays competitive world you need to think one step ahead to chase your competitors, our research offers reviews about key players, major collaborations, merger & acquisitions along with trending innovation and business policies to present better insights to drive the business into right direction

Key Segmentation: Intelligent Process Automation Market

By Technology (Natural Language Processing, Machine and Deep Learning, Neural Networks, Virtual Agents, Mini Bots and RPA, Computer Vision, Others), Component (Solutions, Services), Vertical (Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance, Telecommunications and IT, Transport and Logistics, Media and Entertainment, Retail and E-Commerce, Manufacturing, Healthcare and Life Sciences, Others), Application (IT Operations, Business Process Automation, Application Management, Content Management, Security, Others),

Regional Outlook

North America (US, Canada, Mexico)

South America (Brazil, Argentina, rest of south America)

Asia and Pacific region (Japan, china, India, New Zealand, Vietnam, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, etc)

Middle east and Africa (UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, etc)

Europe (Germany, Italy, U.K, France, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Russia, etc)

Rapid Business Growth Factors

In addition, the market is growing at a fast pace and the report shows us that there are a couple of key factors behind that. The most important factor thats helping the market grow faster than usual is the tough competition.

What are the major market growth drivers?

Rapid increase in scope and usage of IT and automation within the globe with high acceptance ratio in the market

Automation with artificial intelligence helps in better customer experience and to grow in systematic manner

Minimizing the human work and error with optimum utilization of resources to earn greater efficiency of business enterprise in the market

Research strategies and tools used of Intelligent Process Automation Market:

This Intelligent Process Automation market research report helps the readers to know about the overall market scenario, strategy to further decide on this market project. It utilizes SWOT analysis, Porters Five Forces Analysis and PEST analysis.

Key Points of this Report:

The depth industry chain include analysis value chain analysis, porter five forces model analysis and cost structure analysis

The report covers North America and country-wise market of Intelligent Process Automation

It describes present situation, historical background and future forecast

Comprehensive data showing Intelligent Process Automation capacities, production, consumption, trade statistics, and prices in the recent years are provided

The report indicates a wealth of information on Intelligent Process Automation manufacturer

Intelligent Process Automation market forecast for next five years, including market volumes and prices is also provided

Raw Material Supply and Downstream Consumer Information is also included

Any other users requirements which is feasible for us

Key Developments in the Market:

In October 2018, Automation Anywhere launched Apeople an online community, for the experts and practitioners of robotic process automation, business process automation and artificial intelligence

In September 2018, Eggplant RPA by eggplant has been launched which can do or automate the work which is being done by the human using DAI technology. It has the capability of conversion and migration of 500,000 files which reduce the chances of overlapping of work using DAI technology

Some extract from Table of Contents

Overview of Global Intelligent Process Automation Market

Intelligent Process Automation Size (Sales Volume) Comparison by Type

Intelligent Process Automation Size (Consumption) and Market Share Comparison by Application

Intelligent Process Automation Size (Value) Comparison by Region

Intelligent Process Automation Sales, Revenue and Growth Rate

Intelligent Process Automation Competitive Situation and Trends

Strategic proposal for estimating availability of core business segments

Players/Suppliers, Sales Area

Analyze competitors, including all important parameters of Intelligent Process Automation

Global Intelligent Process Automation Manufacturing Cost Analysis

The most recent innovative headway and supply chain pattern mapping

Thanks for reading this article; you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe, MEA or Asia Pacific.

FREE Table Of Contents Is Available [emailprotected] https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/toc?dbmr=global-intelligent-process-automation-market&AM

Why Is Data Triangulation Important In Qualitative Research?

This involves data mining, analysis of the impact of data variables on the market, and primary (industry expert) validation. Apart from this, other data models include Vendor Positioning Grid, Market Time Line Analysis, Market Overview and Guide, Company Positioning Grid, Company Market Share Analysis, Standards of Measurement, Top to Bottom Analysis and Vendor Share Analysis. Triangulation is one method used while reviewing, synthesizing and interpreting field data. Data triangulation has been advocated as a methodological technique not only to enhance the validity of the research findings but also to achieve completeness and confirmation of data using multiple methods

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Intelligent Process Automation Market Business Growth Tactics, Future Strategies, competitive Outlook, Industrial Demand and Opportunities - 3rd Watch...

LightSpeed Automation Launches New Website – VendingMarketWatch

LightSpeed Automation has partnered with the digital marketing company VendCentral to create and launch its new website. David Marler, VP of Sales & Marketing for LightSpeed Automation, says the companys new website more clearly guides customers through the benefits and features of its many products. VendCentral not only made our site easy to navigate, but also easy to explain to a prospect, he says.

In addition to being a valuable sales tool, the website is also filled with great resources to support LightSpeeds customers and members of the refreshment industry. Creating a new website had been a long-term goal for the company, but COVID-19 impressed upon it the importance of improving its online presence to capture new customers - and better serve its existing ones. LightSpeed also wanted a website that clearly represented its company, its values, and the way it does business.

LightSpeed chose to work with VendCentral because of its great reputation in the refreshment industry. David says, When you have seconds to catch a prospect's eye, you need to make your website compelling in order to get them to respond.The VendCentral team took the time to listen to what we wanted in a new website and then took that input and made our vision a reality.

VendCentral is a digital marketing agency solely focused on the refreshment industry. Its founder, Neil Swindale, says that right now, businesses are giving their websites a hard look. In-person sales calls are not a viable option right now. Customers are relying more and more on company websites to guide them through the decision-making process. The impression your website makes can really make or break a deal.

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LightSpeed Automation Launches New Website - VendingMarketWatch

Sabre and Mindsay partner to create chatbot to automate and enhance customer service for travel brands – Yahoo Finance

Mindsay's conversational automation platform combined with Sabre's industry-leading GDS technology allows travel brands to automate and enhance customer service

SOUTHLAKE, Texas, July 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --Mindsay, the leader in conversational AI for the travel industry, and Sabre Corporation (NASDAQ: SABR), a leading software and technology provider that powers the global travel industry, today announced the official launch of acustomer service automation solution for airlines, online travel agencies (OTAs) and travel management companies (TMCs). As the only conversational AI technology to integrate seamlessly with Sabre, Mindsay's intelligent virtual agents are fully connected with Sabre's APIs, giving them the ability to automatically resolve a variety of requests, from simple FAQs to complex booking modifications.

This unique integration allows travel companies to automatically resolve up to 70% of customer requests, significantly reducing call and live chat volumes. With bots handling the majority of common customer requests, travelagents can focus on solving the most urgent and complex requests. By integrating with agent platforms like Zendesk, Salesforce, Intercom and Genesys, Mindsay allows travel agents to seamlessly enter and exit conversations, ensuring impeccable, efficient customer service.

Sabre customer, Kilroy, is the first travel company to use Mindsay, Sabre, and Zendesk to automate a variety of customer requests including:

"We partnered with Mindsay because of its seamless integration with Sabre and ability to quickly deliver a chatbot to assist our travelers, who now get instant answers and avoid wait times. The aim is not only to increase efficiency but even more so to improve customer satisfaction by providing quick answers to their needs," said Pernille Vaupel, director, air and online sales at KILROY International.

"We're thrilled to partner with Sabre to bring better, more efficient customer service to the travel industry. Our unique integration with Sabre's leading GDS allows airlines, OTAs, TMCs, and hotels to deliver better service at a fraction of the cost, by providing the perfect mix of self-service and human interaction," said Guillaume Laporte CEO at Mindsay.

"Sabre is committed to providing our OTA customers with the differentiated products they need to exceed their customers' expectations, and this begins with our APIs," said Madhavan Kasthuri, managing director, EMEA online business at Sabre. "We are excited to partner with such a committed, forward-thinking partner who clearly understands the role technology plays in delivering a seamless experience that today's travelers are increasingly expecting, especially when dealing with the online channel."

"Mindsay is an innovative partner with a shared focus on delivering a next generation shopping experience to travelers," added Marcos Pinedo, vice president, partner solutions at Sabre. "The new chatbot solution will help automatically resolve routine traveler requests, enabling our travel agency customers to focus on delivering expertise and solving more complex traveler demands."

To see the solution in action, contact sabre@mindsay.com

About MindsayMindsay automates customer-facing processes with the perfect union of Conversational AI and RPA. Headquartered in Paris with offices in New York, Mindsay serves travel brands including CWT, Accor, Iberia, Thalys, and SNCF. The company's customer service automation platform gives business users the power to create, monitor, and improve their processes without help from IT. For more information, visit http://www.mindsay.com

About Sabre CorporationSabre Corporation is a leading software and technology company that powers the global travel industry, serving a wide range of travel companies including airlines, hoteliers, travel agencies and other suppliers. The company provides retailing, distribution and fulfilment solutions that help its customers operate more efficiently, drive revenue and offer personalized traveller experiences. Through its leading travel marketplace, Sabre connects travel suppliers with buyers from around the globe. Sabre's technologyplatform manages more than $260B worth of global travel spend annually. Headquartered in Southlake, Texas, USA, Sabre serves customers in more than 160 countries around the world. For more information, visit http://www.sabre.com.

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Sabre and Mindsay partner to create chatbot to automate and enhance customer service for travel brands - Yahoo Finance

Intelligent Automation in the Contact Center the Topic of ISG Smartalks Webinar – GlobeNewswire

Stamford, Connecticut, July 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Intelligent automation strategies for managing contact centers and leveraging data will be explored by experts from ISG, Re:infer, IPsoft and NICE in the next ISG Smartalks webinar, hosted by Information Services Group (ISG) (Nasdaq: III), a leading global technology research and advisory firm.

Opportunities for enterprises to embed intelligent automation into contact center operations and drive sustainable change will be discussed by Wayne Butterfield, director and global head of ISG intelligent automation solutions; Dr. Ed Challis, co-founder and CEO, Re:infer; Serkan Ibrahim, director, IPsoft, and Maor Revah, head of business development, NICE, during the live, hour-long session, Using Intelligent Automation in the Contact Center, at 11 a.m., U.S. Eastern Time, Thursday, July 23.

Many organizations have long struggled to manage the huge amounts of data that flow through the contact center. Since the beginning of the pandemic, contact center employees have been even more challenged to maintain customer satisfaction in difficult circumstances, Butterfield said. In response, customer contact centers that have already started their intelligent automation journeys have been rewarded, while many others have been convinced to embrace intelligent automation.

Intelligent automation can address common contact center challenges by helping users quickly and efficiently understand, automate and respond to customer demand and increase competitive advantage, Butterfield said. With properly deployed technologies in place, users can see what is driving spikes in demand, prove automation initiatives have delivered as expected, use digital assistants to support their staff and customers, and benefit from technologies like virtual agents, text analytics, desktop analytics and agent assistants

Todays intelligent automation creates business value through data, pattern recognition and visuals, and by automating manual, repetitive work, Butterfield said. We are delighted to be joined by experts with Re:infer, IPsoft and NICE, who together cover the spectrum of contact center solutions, from analytics and insights to find value opportunities, to automating relevant queries out of the contact center and into the enterprise, to automated desktop assistance that reduces total contact handling times. We look forward to an informative and valuable discussion.

To register for the ISG Smartalks webinar, visit the event website.

About ISG

ISG (Information Services Group) (Nasdaq: III) is a leading global technology research and advisory firm. A trusted business partner to more than 700 clients, including more than 75 of the world's top 100 enterprises, ISG is committed to helping corporations, public sector organizations, and service and technology providers achieve operational excellence and faster growth. The firm specializes in digital transformation services, including automation, cloud and data analytics; sourcing advisory; managed governance and risk services; network carrier services; strategy and operations design; change management; market intelligence and technology research and analysis. Founded in 2006, and based in Stamford, Conn., ISG employs more than 1,300 digital-ready professionals operating in more than 20 countriesa global team known for its innovative thinking, market influence, deep industry and technology expertise, and world-class research and analytical capabilities based on the industrys most comprehensive marketplace data. For more information, visit http://www.isg-one.com.

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Intelligent Automation in the Contact Center the Topic of ISG Smartalks Webinar - GlobeNewswire

From drinking helmets to automation, how we might reopen the economy despite COVID-19: Don Pittis – CBC.ca

As the Bank of Canada's newgovernor, Tiff Macklem,reminded us last week, the lockdown to stop the coronavirus epidemic has been costly. And the battle is not over yet.

Those who once thought shuttering the economy to corral COVID-19 was too expensive now merely have to look south, where a strategy of whistling past the graveyard has led to an economically devastating second round of the disease.

Even while some COVID-deniers continue a bizarre refusal to follow simple steps to defeat the pandemic, Canadian businesses may be able to profit from lessons learned abroad.

Using the innovation for which capitalism is famed and the power of good science, it may be possible to have the best of both worlds. Instead of waiting for a vaccine which some scientists doubt will be as effective as hoped businesses and policy-makers are seeking strategies to reopen the economy without launching an even more costly renewed outbreak.

From the slightly wacky to the eminently practical, here are some ways Canada might be able to have its cake and eat it too.

FromJapanese whisky-producer Suntory comes one of the most interesting COVID-19 business proposals: a specialized drinking helmet that allows the up-close socializing typical in pubs without sharing the virus. The company has not yet revealed prototypes.

Along with Plexiglasbarriers, vastly improved ventilation and increased table spacing, the drinking helmet would just be a slightly more eccentric innovation to keep patrons feel safe while showing authorities that bars and restaurants need not be sources of contagion.

As agricultural economist and farmer Philip Shaw told me recently, automation was already sweeping the industry even in such difficult tasks as tomato picking before COVID-19 precautions began adding to the costs of temporary foreign workers. Shaw, who worries farmers have not had enough government support during the crisis, says profits depend on imported labour.

But every time costs rise, new technology becomes more feasible. Now, after repeated outbreaks of the disease in meat-packing plants, companies including Tyson Foods are struggling to get machines to do processing jobs that have traditionally been thought to require the finesse of human manual dexterity.

Improbable as it may seem, while some traditional business voices are calling for the end of the Canada emergency response benefit so that employers can persuade workers to come back to lower wage jobs others insist now is the time to increase employee incomes.

Management research shows investing in people pays off in the long run. Usually businesses can't afford to wait. But since businesses aren't expecting immediate returns in this period, this may be a perfect time to hire only essential workers and pay them well.

For those who can afford it, business advocates say paying more will pay off while improving a company's reputation with consumers. And as the Economist reports in this week's edition, as natural capital is expended, human capital becomes the source of a country's economic success.

While his suggestions have often been ignored by his boss, on Friday Dr. Anthony Fauci, a leading member of the U.S. president's coronavirus task force, had some sound advice on how businesses can "carefully and prudently" open the economy, as he told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, without suffering a new outbreak.

One of his pieces of advice is to use a "dial up, dial down" strategy instead of opening businesses everywhere all at once, do it in incremental steps, ready to take a step back if cases begin to increase and avoid the risk of a costly return to lockdown.

It is inevitable that some self-interested businesses including the entertainment and airline industries have been lobbying hard to get back to normal.

"Let's go fly for God's sake," American Airlines boss Doug Parker told the Wall Street Journal just as the U.S. was hitting new COVID-19 case records.

But it is clear that different businesses have different risk levels.

In the absence of drinking helmets, for example, bars have been contagion hot spots. Businesses in regions,such as the Atlantic provinces, that have been relatively virus free get to go first while health authorities prepareto pounce on local outbreaks.

Last week Air Canada's chief medical officer Jim Chung called on governments to adopt a "science-based approach" to reopening the travel industry.

While the appeal was clearly aimed at getting more paying bums in seats, the idea of businesses listening to science seems like one that could have prevented the U.S. second wave and could stop one from happening in Canada. The newness of the disease has meant that medical experts seem to have repeatedly got it wrong.

But as scientists learnmore about the disease andmasks, and whether airports and travel, or something else, actually contribute more to the spread of the disease business leaders may be learning that by accepting scientific advice and adopting innovative techniques, they can maximize profits and bring the economy back without unleashing a disastrous new U.S.-style spike in cases.

Follow Don on Twitter @don_pittis

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From drinking helmets to automation, how we might reopen the economy despite COVID-19: Don Pittis - CBC.ca

After COVID-19: Digital Process Automation Market 2020 Analysis By 2029 With Updated Key Players | MarketResearch.Biz – Cole of Duty

The Digital Process Automation Market report maintains the future market forecasts identified with Digital Process Automation Market size, revenue, production, Consumption, gross margin, and other generous components. It likewise looks at the job of the noticeable Digital Process Automation Market players associated with the business including their corporate overview. While stressing the key driving components for the Digital Process Automation Market, the report likewise offers a full investigation of things to future trends and advancements of the market.

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Digital Process Automation MarketKey Players: International Business Machines Corporation, Newgen Software Technologies Limited, Infosys Limited, BP Logix Inc, Appian Corporation, TIBCO Software Inc, OpenText Corp., DST Systems Inc, Pegasystems Inc, Oracle Corporation, SourceCode Technology Holdings Inc (K2), Cognizant Technology Solutions

The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic is demanding a horrendous human cost and threatening the world economy. Across businesses, organizations should act presently to ensure their representatives and customers and get ready now for the world beyond coronavirus.

Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers

North America (United States, Canada, Mexico)

Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Southeast Asia)

South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, etc.)

Europe, Middle East and Africa (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa)

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Our reports have been assessed by some industry specialists in the market, therefore making them valuable for the organizations to boost their arrival on ventures.

We give a far reaching pictorial portrayal of the data, vital proposals, results of the logical devices to offer an intricate scene, featuring the key market players. This point by point evaluation of the market will enable the organization to build productivity.

The interest and gracefully elements offered in the report give a 360 degree perspective available.

Our report assists perusers with decoding the current and future imperatives in the Digital Process Automation Market, and assist them with planning ideal business procedures to augment development in the market.

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Table of Contents

Report Overview: It incorporates six sections, viz. research scope, significant makers covered, advertise sections by type, Digital Process Automation Market fragments by application, study targets, and years considered.

Global Growth Trends: There are three parts remembered for this segment, for example industry inclines, the development pace of key makers, and production investigation.

Digital Process Automation Market Share by Manufacturer: Here, production, income, and value examination by the maker are incorporated alongside different parts, for example, development plans and merger and securing, items offered by key producers, and regions served and home office circulation.

Market Size by Type: It includes analysis of price, production value market share, and production market share by type.

Market Size by Application: This section includes Digital Process Automation Market consumption analysis by application.

Profiles of Manufacturers: Here, leading players of the global Digital Process Automation Market are studied based on sales area, key products, gross margin, revenue, price, and production.

Digital Process Automation Market Value Chain and Sales Channel Analysis: It includes customer, distributor, Digital Process Automation Market value chain, and sales channel analysis.

Market Forecast Production Side: In this part of the report, the authors have focused on production and production value forecast, key producers forecast, and production and production value forecast by type.

Whats more, For detailed informationTOC Continued

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LogicHub Selected by Defense Innovation Unit to Deliver Intelligent Decision Automation Platform to US Air Force – Yahoo Finance

Decision automation platform combines human expertise with machine learning to automate decision making accurately and at scale

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., July 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --LogicHub, the leader in automated detection and response solutions, today announced that the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), a U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) organization, selected LogicHub to deliver an Intelligent Decision Automation Platform (iDAP) prototypeto the U.S. Air Force. LogicHub will provide automated alert triage that harnesses the power of machine learning (ML) to drastically reduce the time it takes for cyber operators to address malicious activity on the Air Force Network (AFNET) by acting as a "virtual operator" with greater than 95% accuracy. With a successful DIU prototype, the LogicHub solution has the potential to scale to other DoD organizations through a production Other Transaction (OT) agreement.

"LogicHub's Decision Automation Platform uniquely combines human tribal knowledge with our deep analytics engine powered by machine learning techniques to make automated decisions for complex alerts with greater accuracy at scale. We are excited to extend our proven technology from many large commercial enterprises, now to the DoD and the Air Force to provide Intelligent Decision making via automation," said Monica Jain, LogicHub Co-Founder.

"Throughout the engagement process, from solicitation to contract award, the DIU team has been extremely responsive and helpful, guiding us through every phase of the Commercial Solutions Opening process."

The Intelligent Decision Automation Platform, powered by LogicHub, will automate decision making processes for detecting malicious behavior such as compromised user accounts and endpoints, data exfiltration, and insider access abuse. The LogicHub platform will deliver:ML-based automated decision making: LogicHub's automated decision-making playbooks contain embedded machine learning that learns from and emulates human expertise to automatically make accurate and rapid decisions at scale.Automated Alert Triage at Scale: LogicHub is architected to analyze and triage millions of alerts and events per day with greater than 95% accuracy to help eliminate false positives, reduce alert fatigue and identify critical alerts.Deep Detection Capabilities:The LogicHub platform will integrate with existing SIEM, Threat Intelligence Platforms (TIP) and other solutions to ensure that automated decisions are based on comprehensive event context with greater accuracy when combined with LogicHub's powerful analytics engine and threat scoring capabilities.

Story continues

To learn more about how LogicHub uses decision automation to help organizations eliminate alert fatigue and automate analyst activities, visit https://www.logichub.com

About LogicHub

LogicHub accelerates security teams' journey towards automated security operations by providing adaptable, transparent, and automation-driven end-to-end detection and response. With solutions that can be delivered as either a platform or a service, LogicHub empowers security personnel throughout the entire threat management lifecycle. To learn more visit http://www.logichub.com, and follow LogicHub on LinkedIn and @logichubhq on Twitter.

ContactsKevin BroughtonMarketing for LogicHub(303) 859-4160kevin@logichub.com

About the Defense Innovation UnitThe Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) accelerates the adoption of commercial technology throughout the military and growing the national security innovation base. DIU partners with organizations across the Department of Defense (DoD), to rapidly prototype, field and scale advanced commercial solutions that address national security challenges. DIU connects its DoD partners with leading technology companies from across the country.

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Integrated Marine Automation System Market Global Production, Growth, Share, Demand and Applications Forecast to 2025 – Cole of Duty

A detailed research study on the Integrated Marine Automation System Market was recently published by UpMarketResearch. This is a latest report, covering the current COVID-19 impact on the market. The pandemic of Coronavirus (COVID-19) has affected every aspect of life globally. This has brought along several changes in market conditions. The rapidly changing market scenario and initial and future assessment of the impact is covered in the report. The report puts together a concise analysis of the growth factors influencing the current business scenario across various regions. Significant information pertaining to the industry analysis size, share, application, and statistics are summed in the report in order to present an ensemble prediction. Additionally, this report encompasses an accurate competitive analysis of major market players and their strategies during the projection timeline.

The latest report on the Integrated Marine Automation System Market consists of an analysis of this industry and its segments. As per the report, the market is estimated to gain significant returns and register substantial y-o-y growth during the forecast period.

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According to the report, the study offers details regarding the valuable estimations of the market such as market size, sales capacity, and profit projections. The report documents factors such as drivers, restraints, and opportunities that impacts the remuneration of this market.

An Outline of the Major Key Points of the Integrated Marine Automation System Market Report:

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The Geographical Landscape of the Market Include:

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Some of the Major Highlights of TOC Covers:Chapter 1: Executive Summary

Chapter 2: Methodology & Scope

Chapter 3: Market Insights

Chapter 4: Company Profiles

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Integrated Marine Automation System Market Global Production, Growth, Share, Demand and Applications Forecast to 2025 - Cole of Duty

Cleveland Heights consultant says rate structure projections should be higher for switch to automated trash, – cleveland.com

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio -- While a consultant agrees with the recommendation of the citys Refuse and Recycling Task Force to switch to automated pickup, their respective proposed rate structures differ significantly.

Early this year, the task force recommended raising the monthly rate by about $3, from the current $11.50 to a ballpark figure of $14.50.

But further analysis by Stow-based consultant GT Environmental has put that figure in the range of $18 to $21.50 per month -- and going up at least $1 a month from there after the third year, although these amounts could be reduced once a route optimization study is conducted.

Completed studies so far show that the city received about $1.85 million from a total of 14,531 households billed at the current rate. However, it cost the city over $2.7 million to collect 18,176 tons of trash and 2,542 tons of recyclables.

This required a city subsidy of nearly $886,000 to cover the remaining cost. GT Environmental consultant Jim Skora noted that 16 percent of the citys sanitation customers didnt pay their bills last year.

One of the problems with collection is that Cleveland Heights can no longer threaten deadbeat customers with a water shut-off notice, since the ailing system has been taken over in recent years by the City of Cleveland.

And Cleveland Heights sanitation fleet may be in even worse shape than the water system was.

Part of the (cost) issue now is that the condition of the fleet has decayed to the point that we are losing more trash throughout the routes because our trucks are falling apart, City Manager Tanisha Briley said during the July 13 presentation to City Councils Municipal Services Committee.

Briley has recommended a dedicated funding source to adequately replace equipment.

"We're spending more to go to another transfer station because our equipment is down," Briley added, noting that sanitation is budgeted out of the General Fund, rather than as an "Enterprise Account."

One unique feature that Cleveland Heights has working in its favor is its own transfer station at the City Public Works Department, which "evolved from a solid waste incinerator from back in the day," Skora noted.

Skora and GT Environmental are recommending about $452,000 in transfer station upgrades, which is a relatively cheap fix in the context of over $2 million to buy four automated garbage packers and two recycling trucks.

There are also the capital needs costs of buying 14,531 trash carts ($51 apiece) and recycling containers ($47 each), along with three new semi-trucks at over $100,000 apiece -- as well as at least two $67,000 steel transfer trailers.

It all leads to a projected cost in the first year of about $3.9 million, although consultants see that cost leveling out in future years, especially a funding source that would allow for borrowing to cover long-term capital expenses.

Given the current state of recycling, the city will be paying more for the processing of recyclables, although automation could also drive that cost down. At the same time, automation tends to improve collection numbers for recyclables, which have been on a downward trend.

Skora said it would only cost the city about $69 per recyclable ton collected through single-stream automated recycling, rather than the projected $95 a ton to sort through the "blue bags" that many residents leave on their tree lawns every week.

Increased efficiency with the fleet could also mean fewer truck trips to the landfill and recycling plants -- as many as seven or eight trips per day right now.

And any city that goes to automated needs to re-evaluate its bulk-pickup policies, Skora said, recommending fewer opportunities than the weekly pickups that were allowed before the coronavirus pandemic shut bulk pickup down completely.

Skora also noted that Cleveland Heights offers a "homestead rate" of only $3 per month for qualifying residents. While GT Environmental is proposing a substantial increase in that fee, Skora said it would still remain $8.50 less than the average rate, as it currently stands.

There are also preliminary plans to take the current sanitation staffing down from 27 to 24 employees, although the current collection system provides efficiency that impressed GT Environmental.

"You have a trash program that's almost unheard of in the public sector, using a manual collection system with one person on a truck," Skora said. "I don't think I've ever seen that, except in the private sector."

Skora added that most cities will have two people and sometimes three on a garbage truck, and one or two on a recycling truck.

"You have one on trash and one on recycling -- which is like automated collection from a staffing standpoint," Skora added.

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Building Automation Systems for Commercial Facilities Market 2020 Analytical Assessment, Key Drivers, Growth and Opportunities With COVID-19 Update -…

Global Building Automation Systems for Commercial Facilities Market Growth (Status and Outlook) 2020-2025 gives out a detailed review of the markets performance, status, situation, and market segments. The report illustrates the global market status and prospects of global and major regions. The report looks at how the Building Automation Systems for Commercial Facilities market is spreading its foothold by influencing and contributing to the global revenue generation. The report contains deep geographical analysis where key regional and country-level markets are included. The market is segmented into manufacturing estimate through type, and usage estimate by means of implementation.

The report presents the feature scrutinizing of the determined marketplace depending upon high-quality players, present, beyond and emergent facts with an objective to provide a profitable guide for all the rivals in the global Building Automation Systems for Commercial Facilities market. The geographical division offers data that gives you an idea of the revenue of the global companies and sales figures of the growth Building Automation Systems for Commercial Facilities Market. Its important elements regarding top companies such as their classification, size, profiles, business atmosphere, future, and recent trends, and contact information are included in the report.

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NOTE: Our analysts monitoring the situation across the globe explains that the market will generate remunerative prospects for producers post COVID-19 crisis. The report aims to provide an additional illustration of the latest scenario, economic slowdown, and COVID-19 impact on the overall industry.

Leading players in the global market are: Honeywell International, Trane, Johnson Controls, Delta Controls, Robert Bosch GmbH, Siemens AG, Performance Mechanical Group, Carrier Corporation, Novar, Schneider Electric SE

Key Strategic Developments:

The study encompasses the major strategic developments of the Building Automation Systems for Commercial Facilities industry, new product launch, M&A, acquisitions, agreements, comprising R&D, partnerships, collaborations, joint ventures. Regional growth of the leading competitors operating in the market on a global and regional scale also additionally discussed.

Regional Structure of The Market:

The report analyzes the footprint of every product and its significance analyses to examine each geographical segment of the market with import, export, consumption, and production in these regions to provide a complete understanding of the Building Automation Systems for Commercial Facilities market. Basic information with detail to the market share held by the regions in company with the trade, deal, that every geography explanations for have been given in the report. The region covered according to the growth rate: Americas (United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil), APAC (China, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, India, Australia), Europe (Germany, France, UK, Italy, Russia), Middle East & Africa (Egypt, South Africa, Israel, Turkey, GCC Countries)

On the basis of types, the market has been primarily split into: Lighting Control Systems, HVAC Control Systems, Security & Access Control Systems, Others

On the basis of applications, the major market segments given are: Commercial, Industrial

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Video astronomy: Bring the universe to your friends with Celestron’s RASA 8 telescope – Space.com

A new generation of optically "fast" telescopes, connected to compact high-resolution video cameras, is poised to disrupt amateur astronomy in a good way.

Such "video astrographs" can transform our lonely pursuit into a much more social hobby. These new scopes can also bring magnificent, colorful, magazine-quality astrophotography within reach of modest budgets even for those of us living near light-polluted cities.

Leading this new era of happy disruption: Celestron's Rowe-Ackermann Schmidt Astrograph (RASA, pronounced "RAHZ'suh"). The RASA is purpose-built to capture wide, flat fields of starlight without introducing false color and without smearing or stretching any individual star's appearance (the dreaded "coma" problem).

It's called an "astrograph" because it's designed solely for photography. Think of it as a giant camera lens. You cannot use it for visual astronomy; there's no hole in which to plop an eyepiece! RASAs come in three aperture sizes. We looked at the most affordable RASA 8-inch (20 centimeters).

Related: Best telescopes for the money 2020 reviews and guide

The other heroes of this joyful revolution are new video cameras made by ZWO, Atik, QHY, Meade, Orion, Altair, Celestron and others. These compact, high-resolution cams easily fit onto the RASA's front plate, just where the image comes together ("prime focus"). Their compact, generally cylindrical bodies block very little of the view.

The RASA gathers light so quickly, it takes only a few seconds for software to begin to build a stunning image on a live video monitor. And the view continues to improve as the data build. For live video astronomy, it's best to use a color camera.

Buy Celestron RASA 8 on Amazon.com | $1,699.99

Capture wide-field, deep-sky images in seconds with Celestron's 8-inch Rowe-Ackermann Schmidt Astrograph. The telescope has incredibly fast optics and an ultra-stable imaging system. It does not include a tripod and mounting system.

Aperture:203mm (8") |Focal Length:400mm (15.74") |Focal Ratio:f/2.0 |Length:628mm (24.7") |Weight:17 lbs. (7.7 kg) |Spectral range:390-800nm

Say the word "video" and most people think of something moving on a screen. But video astronomy is not about seeing motion in the sky. True, every star in the universe moves. Our own sun along with planet Earth is slashing through spacetime at about 220 kilometers per second, or 490,000 miles per hour. The fastest stars those booted out by supernova blasts or slung around by supermassive black holes rip along at more than 1,500 km/s. Our human eyesight evolved to catch motion: Threatening predators, enticing food, treacherous situations, sexy people. But most stars are so far from one another, they don't seem to move on time scales humans can easily notice. So why shoot starlight on video?

Video is a stream of still images. If you stack them up rather than stringing them out you can use software to build up the brightness, bring up the color, subtract out the self-noise of the camera. If the telescope is "fast," those images can quickly add up to a glorious ghost of stellar nebulosity, materializing on a monitor, right before your eyes: The births and deaths of stars revealed. Something deeply moving on a screen after all!

You'll frequently see a telescope described by its "f-number;" "f/11, f/6" and so forth. That's it's "focal ratio" it's the number you get if you divide the focal length (distance from the main mirror or lens to the point where the image comes into focus) by the aperture (diameter of the main mirror or lens).

The lower the f-number, the "faster" the telescope will collect light, so the brighter the image will be. But it also means the field of view will be wider and the magnification lower. Faster instruments are thus better for photographing big dim targets, like galaxies and nebulas, which tend to be more diffuse. Slower optics are better for small bright targets like planets, lunar features and star groups. The RASA, at f/2.2, is a speed demon, fuzzy object grabbing machine!

Long before the novel coronavirus washed across our planet, we amateur astronomers were experienced practitioners of social distancing, though not by choice or necessity. Astronomy has not exactly been the most communal of activities. One spends a long while setting up, plugging-in, aligning, calibrating, star-finding, pointing, focusing and fiddling. These require concentration, which means not interacting with people very much.

Even before we needed to keep 6 feet (2 meters) of distance from one another, it wasn't that easy to coax friends or family members out into the cold to wait their turn at the eyepiece. They were inclined to be nervous about damaging your expensive 'scope; self-conscious about the folks waiting behind them. They were often bent over and uncomfortable adapting their bodies to our oddly angled rigs. So, they usually took much less of a good long look than they really wanted. This was hardly conducive to collective enjoyment. What should have elicited a "WOW!" too often turned into a "meh."

Video astronomy also called "electronic-assisted astronomy" changes all that. A live monitor connected to the telescope, or a live feed to the Web, instantly brings back the fun. With the RASA, "a laptop, and a camera is all you need," Dylan O'Donnell told Space.com from his Byron Bay Observatory in eastern Australia. An internet marketer by day, and a topnotch astrophotographer by night, O'Donnell publishes the extremely helpful STAR STUFF YouTube channel.

"If you wish to use a portable device, like a phone or a tablet," he said, "the ZWO ASI Air (Wi-Fi camera controller), or an equivalent, can make portable astronomy a little bit easier than lugging around a computer." With such a rig and good internet connectivity, you can live-stream the wonder of the universe to many people isolated behind closed doors.

Even before we needed to keep 6 feet (2 meters) of distance from one another, it wasn't that easy to coax friends or family members out into the cold to wait their turn at the eyepiece. They were inclined to be nervous about damaging your expensive 'scope; self-conscious about the folks waiting behind them. They were often bent over and uncomfortable adapting their bodies to our oddly angled rigs. So, they usually took much less of a good long look than they really wanted. This was hardly conducive to collective enjoyment. What should have elicited a "WOW!" too often turned into a "meh."

Video astronomy also called "electronic-assisted astronomy" changes all that. A live monitor connected to the telescope, or a live feed to the Web, instantly brings back the fun. With the RASA, "a laptop, and a camera is all you need," Dylan O'Donnell told Space.com from his Byron Bay Observatory in eastern Australia. An internet marketer by day, and a topnotch astrophotographer by night, O'Donnell publishes the extremely helpful STAR STUFF YouTube channel.

"If you wish to use a portable device, like a phone or a tablet," he said, "the ZWO ASI Air (Wi-Fi camera controller), or an equivalent, can make portable astronomy a little bit easier than lugging around a computer." With such a rig and good internet connectivity, you can live-stream the wonder of the universe to many people isolated behind closed doors.

As a member of Team Celestron, O'Donnell was one of the first to put the RASA through real-world, gotta-get-the-shot demanding paces. "I have used the RASA for live video style astronomy and these f/2 scopes are perfect," he said. "Some software like SharpCap and [Howie Levine's] Astro Toaster can provide live stacking features, which will build up an image from short exposures fairly quickly on-screen, while removing the noise and making astronomya much quicker, more visceral experience. At outreach events this techniquecan be very impressive with a projector!"

Watch Dylan O'Donnell mount a camera on the RASA 8.

When we are able to congregate again, this formerly lonely, arcane hobby can quickly become an enjoyable shared experience like a cool concert or the big game on a wide screen. Just please check, if you're planning on doing this at a classic star party, that your bright monitor will be allowed. Don't you dare despoil the dark for visual observers!

Astronomical get-togethers don't have to exist only in real time and real space. Social media shifts the star party through the fourth dimension: Posting the proud astrophoto you just made by stacking and tweaking last night's imaging run is a wonderful conversation starter.

Beyond grabbing live images for a display, video astronomy on the RASA can also dredge ancient light waves from the abyss much faster than nearly every other telescope. To get the sharpest images of the deep sky, it's best to switch to a monochrome camera and capture one portion of the spectrum at a time ("narrowband imaging").

The RASA 8's relatively small aperture means you can't use big motorized filter wheels; you have to manually insert single filters along the optical path to your camera. But this can be very worthwhile if you live under light pollution; so-called notch filters and sky filters can subtract artificial light from your images of the sky.

If you grab a number of exposures in sets, each optimized for recording key wavelengths, your final stacked astrophoto can reveal structure in the universe that was invisible to the largest observatories on Earth 40 years ago.

Thanks to the RASA's optical speed, you can do in 2 hours what other instruments can barely manage over two nights. And such a system can get good images under surprisingly light-polluted locations near cities. O'Donnell's "RASA 8 First Light Review" video will show you just what's possible.

Even though the RASA is fast, you still need it to accurately track a point on the sky. That demands a motorized mount under computer control.

Start by performing the best polar alignment you can. Then, "you really want to be guiding and dithering if possible," O'Donnell said, "so you'll need a guide-scope and camera connected to your imaging computer."

To "dither" means to slightly nudge the telescope in a different random direction each time you start a new exposure. This makes it easy to find and kill bad pixels (from the camera's sensor), satellite streaks (there are soon to be many more of these!), or any other consistent artifacts when you stack the shots to make your final composite.

Beyond dither, there's drizzle. A technique originally developed to perfect the historic Hubble Deep Field images is now available to you, the amateur astrophotographer. Drizzling technically known as "variable pixel linear reconstruction" can be invoked at the image-processing stage to restore information lost to under-sampling (one can only expose for so long). Drizzling on your image data can correct small geometric distortions caused by variability in the optics; the astrograph and the camera are excellent, but not perfect:

"One of the reasons the RASA 8 works so well is because the sampling is so good for popular cameras," O'Donnell said. "However, as the field is so wide, stars appear quite small and may feel blocky." But dither (as you're shooting) and drizzle (as you're stacking) can repair the downside damage done by wide-field image capture. Watch O'Donnell break down the whole workflow into simple, easy steps in his video, "Taking Photos of Space."

RASA Optical Tube Assemblies (OTAs) just the telescope itself, no mount, no tripod of three different dimensions are currently available: The RASA 8-inch (20 cm) can be found for about $1,700. Stepping up to the RASA 11-inch (28 cm) will cost around $3,500. You can watch O'Donnell's RASA 11 review video here.

At the high end, Celestron has also developed the research-grade 36 cm (14-inch) aperture RASA targeted to institutions, companies and agencies involved in space surveillance. Many of these big RASAs work to monitor space junk that can damage communications data satellites. Others stalk comets and near-Earth asteroids. A few are at work examining galaxies and galactic clusters.

Buy Celestron RASA 8 on Amazon.com | $1,699.99

Capture wide-field, deep-sky images in seconds with Celestron's 8-inch Rowe-Ackermann Schmidt Astrograph. The telescope has incredibly fast optics and an ultra-stable imaging system. It does not include a tripod and mounting system.

Aperture:203mm (8") |Focal Length:400mm (15.74") |Focal Ratio:f/2.0 |Length:628mm (24.7") |Weight:17 lbs. (7.7 kg) |Spectral range:390-800nm

Beyond price, the RASA 8 can claim two more advantages: It has a wider field of view than its siblings, letting you seize big celestial vistas, like the Orion Nebula, in a single frame. "That 400-millimeter focal length results in quite a wide field of view," O'Donnell told Space.com, "so unless you're looking at Andromeda, this telescope is less of a galaxy hunter and more of a big nebula monster!"

And the RASA 8 is also eminently transportable. The smaller 8-inch OTA can be used on a less expensive smaller mount, atop a more compact tripod; making it easier to get your rig out to dark-sky sites for better images or to travel your sky-sharing machine at star party locations.

The RASA 8's smaller size, though, limits the size of the camera you can fit to it. Your old DSLR is too big. So, probably, is a full-frame video sensor. In fact, the RASA 8 is pretty much limited to APS-C (Advanced Photo System type-C) cameras of the popular Micro Four Thirds format. But there are a lot of them to choose from

To pick the right camera for your needs, it's best to work with a qualified astronomy store. The area at which the RASA 8 can focus is quite tightly bound; your camera's sensor must be in that zone and only certain cameras will succeed. We worked with expert reseller David Barrett at High Point Scientific to configure our rig.

The vast majority of stars even most of those in our own galaxy can't be seen without a telescope collecting their light and a camera storing that light. Stare as you might into the night, you won't see what a "time exposure" can record. To see color and find structure in the cosmos, you must collect that light over time, storing it as a long-exposed image and, perhaps, stacking many such images. With a typical "optically slow" telescope, this can take many hours outside often over several nights and more inside, processing and tweaking at the computer. Astrophotography has, up until now, taken great patience and almost monastic meditation characteristics with which few of us are abundantly blessed.

Telescope optical designs each have differing capacities to gather photons (or particles of light) from far away. The faster a scope can grab them, the less Earth has time to rotate. The RASA can grab a basic monochrome ("black and white") image of any of the better known "fuzzies" (such as the Andromeda Galaxy or the Orion Nebula) in about a minute, with no need to guide the scope. A typical Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope (SCT) of the same aperture will need at least 13 minutes to get a similar image. And the SCT will need to be precisely polar-aligned and actively tracking the whole time, as Earth noticeably rotates.

In camera terms, the RASA is like a lens rated at f/2.2. That's very "fast." Only the highest quality prime lenses used by cinematographers typically deliver that performance. By comparison, the average SCT or Richey-Chretien ("R-C" like the Hubble Space Telescope) works no faster than f/10. Telescope designers use a more precise T-number, which takes into account light stolen by internal structures. The RASA is a T/2.5 system; a typical SCT does no better than about T/11.

Magnification is not the RASA's strong suit. Each of the three RASAs is a wide-field light bucket, best for bagging large, dim objects like nebulas and large (nearby) galaxies, but also for discovering asteroids, comets and locating human-made space junk. It's not for planets. If you're interested in investigating for yourself if Jupiter's Great Red Spot is really shrinking, get hold of a good apochromatic refractor.

Related: Best telescopes for beginners 2020 guide

At first, the idea seems kludgy: You plop a blob of video camera in the middle of the front end of an expensive telescope, so it sticks out into the night like a narwhal's tusk. Add to that the insult of a couple of draped cables: data (video) and power. Aren't you obstructing the most vital part of the light-collector? Well, no, you're not. A hybrid "catadioptric" telescope takes light in around the ring of its big "corrector plate" at the front, then bounces it off a large mirror at the back. In the more familiar Schmidt Cassegrain (SCT) or Maksutov Cassegrain (Mak-Cas) telescopes, that light is bounced one more time, off a small secondary mirror, and exits through a hole in the primary mirror where your eyepiece lies waiting.

With no eyepiece, RASA has no need for such a hole. Part of the genius of the Rowe-Ackermann Schmidt Astrograph (and its ancestors, the Fastar and HyperStar camera retrofits) is to bring the image to prime focus after just one bounce. So that's where you put your camera. You can't put an eyepiece there; your head would block most of the aperture.

The back-shell of the RASA contains an electric fan and a separate flow-through vent-port to help bring the optics into thermal equilibrium with the world around them. Differences in temperature across the glass surfaces can play hob with your focus, making your star field look like it's printed on Silly Putty. The RASA's fan gets 12-volt power from a battery pack or your power tank; that's one of several cables you'll need to run.

You'll also need to cable the camera. Outside of smartphones, there aren't yet many small, wireless high-quality video cameras. Perhaps with 5G network sprouting up everywhere (soon!), demand for such a "little beastie" will develop. Until then, we'll have cables in our fields of view. Those wires will introduce diffraction spikes into your images. But if you dress your cables out at 90 degrees, you'll get that classic four-pointed spiky star effect, which a lot of viewers find pleasing.

As the Apollo 11 crew was headed for the moon, the first charge-coupled device (CCD) image chip was being developed at Bell Labs in New Jersey. CCDs soon replaced the fragile and finicky tubes in video cameras. I first saw one applied to a telescope in 1985, at the observatory complex on Mauna Kea in Hawaii.

Modern barrel CCD astrophotography cameras are spectacularly "quiet" (low visual noise), especially when actively cooled. But they suffer from occasional "hot" pixels (individual full-white errors of quantum accumulation). And they will sometimes "bloom" (introduce a shaped glow) across the frame. CCDs take wonderfully detailed images, but they take a while to do so.

Gaining on CCDs in quality and available at lower cost are CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) sensors. They tend to be noisier than CCDs. But that noise is of a different, more subtle character. And CMOS sensors can be made smaller than CCDs, with much higher pixel densities. The cameras in your phone are CMOS. CMOS logic is fast; a quicker exposure through a telescope means a lower chance that motion-tracking errors will build up to distort your celestial portraits.

If your main focus (a poor pun) is on planets, Earth's moon or the sun, you'd be well advised to look to a CMOS solution first. Just please note that wide-field OTAs like the RASA are not good at small targets. If you crave distant galaxies and have, perhaps, a bit more disposable income for your astrophotography hobby look into one of the higher end scientific CCD cameras, which operate at 16 bit-depth.

Whether CCD or CMOS, shooting stars with dedicated video cameras gives you the advantage of active cooling, which reduces electronic noise. Your old DSLR doesn't have a fan (and it's too big to use on the RASA 8 anyway.)

Starting in the 1930s, a few professional observatories built large telescopes with cameras inside them. Designed by the Estonian optician Bernhard Schmidt, these instruments boasted fast focal ratios and very wide-field views. But changing the film was cumbersome. And servicing the camera meant taking most of the telescope apart.

The ability of these "Schmidt cameras" to seize broad swaths of sky quickly enabled many asteroid discoveries, supernova surveys and captured the earliest clues to the existence of the attractive force of dark matter and repulsive force of dark energy.

Starting in the 1970s, many of these grand old instruments were upgraded with some of the first CCD detectors in place of the film cameras. At first, CCDs were very expensive; in many cases, custom made. (One of the largest Schmidt cameras, the 48-inch (1.2 m) Samuel Oschin Telescope at the Palomar Observatory in California, has been upgraded with five successive CCD generations.)

In the late 1970s, telescope manufacturers serving the amateur market began to offer Schmidt optical tubes with 35-mm film holders inside, advancing amateur astrophotography beyond the self-made, bespoke rig level.

As the new century approached, and CCDs further displaced film, Celestron introduced its Fastar camera, designed to retrofit stock Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes (SCTs). Owners would amputate the telescope's small secondary mirror, replacing it with the Fastar. This meant they could no longer observe by eye, but could concentrate starlight on the Fastar's 320-by-240-pixel CCD; quite primitive by today's 3,840-by-2,160-pixel ("4K") standards, but amazing for the time.

In the early 2000s, the owners of Starizona, an astronomy enthusiasts' store in Tucson, Arizona, propelled the hobby of astrophotography forward with the innovative HyperStar retrofit kits. Owners could now attach their new DSLR (Digital Single-lens Reflex camera), or small CCD video camera, to their SCT. Wide-field electronic images, garnered by fast telescopes with short focal lengths, were now possible. But only certain telescopes could be converted. Smaller apertures would be useless with big DSLR cameras hanging on the front, blocking light. And it wouldn't have made good business sense for Starizona to create a kit for every existing type and size SCT in service.

Around 2013, the Celestron Co. came to an internal consensus that a dedicated fast, wide, astrograph a telescope tube built specifically as a camera "lens" could open astrophotography to many more amateur observers. Pioneering designs by David Rowe, and innovative improvements from Mark Ackermann, challenged Celestron's engineers to bring an affordable mass-produced astrograph to market. Rowe and Ackermann were honored as the "R" and "A" in RASA. And the RASA 11 was born.

Driven by consumer demand for better digital cameras and imaging smartphones, video sensors continued shrinking even as they grew in pixels. This spawned the clutch of less-massive, purpose-built astrophotography cameras available today. With smaller bodies generally cylindrical in shape such cameras obscure less of the telescope's working area, making it possible for Celestron to offer the RASA design concept in a more affordable 8-inch aperture footprint.

Remember those grand old Schmidt tubes with the film cameras inside? Now, as video cameras contract, it's possible the next generation of consumer telescopes, beyond RASA, might put the camera back inside the tube, more or less permanently mounted. Ubiquitous 5G network connectivity could make the camera, the astrograph OTA and the computer-driven tracking mount all completely wireless.

Time will tell. In the meantime, fast (f/2) wide field telescopes like RASA, and compact, 4K video cameras are here now, producing wonderful images that are easy to post and distribute. Every one of us is a stakeholder in the universe. Help your friends to claim their share.

This article was prepared using the following equipment:

Follow the author @DavidSkyBrody. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Video astronomy: Bring the universe to your friends with Celestron's RASA 8 telescope - Space.com

Eastern Iowa Observatory offers a chance to see the stars and so much more – The Gazette

By Dorothy de Souza Guedes, for The Gazette

A lifelong interest in astronomy and outer space led Scott Bounds to pursue three degrees in physics. After a stint at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center near Washington, D.C., hes worked as a research scientist at the University of Iowa Department of Physics and Astronomy for 21 years.

Yet he learned about the Eastern Iowa Observatory and Learning Center the way many locals do: His sons Cub Scout pack scheduled a visit.

Up until then, I didnt even know the observatory existed, Bounds said of the facility on the southern edge of Palisades-Kepler State Park near Mount Vernon.

When he visited the observatory that night about 10 years ago, he was floored by what he saw.

They took us out to this big 24-inch telescope, that, unless youre a fairly wealthy astronomy buff, youre not going to have anything like that, Bounds said. Thats what really wowed me.

He learned that the Linn County Conservation Department and a club, the Cedar Amateur Astronomers, ran the observatory. He joined the club almost immediately, Bounds said. And hes been involved ever since, currently serving as the clubs president for the second time and scouting program coordinator.

LIFELONG ASTRONOMY BUFF

A childhood interest in space was almost inevitable: Bounds grew up in Huntsville, Ala., also known as the Rocket City. Thats where NASA did much of the early rocket design work for the Apollo space missions.

He visited NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville at least twice a year, read science books and magazines, and owned a small telescope. In college, Bounds joined the astronomy club and considered studying astronomy in graduate school before sticking with physics.

But I always maintained an interest in astronomy, he said.

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Bounds moved to Iowa City in 1999. As a research scientist in the space physics realm the field that acclaimed UI scientist James Van Allen effectively started he builds instruments for spacecraft and rockets. His specialty is near-earth phenomena, such as aurora and radiation belts.

The UI Physics and Astronomy department has a couple of telescopes, but he never used them. At home, his backyard wasnt ideal for viewing the night sky. Years went by until his wife suggested he join their son on the Cub Scouts visit to the observatory.

Thats when Bounds found his home as an amateur astronomer.

For Bounds, part of the appeal of astronomy is the unknown.

What is out there? Where do we fit in this universe? he said. We can see the stars but cant go to them, at least not in our lifetime.

Cedar Amateur Astronomers started with a dozen members in 1979. The club now has more than 100 members. The group raised $700,000 to build an indoor learning center and create a permanent home for a two-ton, 1960s research telescope, donated by the University of Iowa, that club members refurbished and reassembled.

The club holds monthly meetings virtually since March because of the coronavirus and maintains the observatorys equipment and grounds. The club also organizes public events and hosts private tours for scouts, school field trips and other groups.

If you have an interest in astronomy, the club is a good stepping-off point, Bounds said. The club caters to any level of experience in amateur astronomy.

They learn from each other what equipment to buy and what not to buy. After becoming a club member, Bounds said he bought a telescope a 10-inch Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain LX200. The downside of owning a telescope is having to set it up and align it before every use. The telescopes at the observatory are already set up and aligned.

You can just go up there and start using them almost immediately, Bounds said.

Grants secured by the club to build the Eastern Iowa Observatory and Learning Center came with a caveat: The club must open the facility and equipment to the public. And so it does.

The club schedules 12 public events each year, from March through November, including two each month in the summer. Typically, a speaker gives a 45-minute presentation on his or her area of expertise. For example, club member Carl Bracken organizes a Solar Day each July with daytime viewing of the sun.

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The astronomy clubs close relationship with the University of Iowa has played a vital role in the observatory having professional-grade equipment. The university donated the 24-inch Boller and Chivens Cassegrain professional-grade telescope used by researchers from the 1960s to the 90s.

The 4,600-square-foot observatory also has a 16-inch computer-controlled telescope and several portable telescopes. Members also bring and set up their own telescopes for visitors to look through. On cloudy nights, visitors can still go out to the telescopes and see how they work.

Theres a lot out there to see, to do. Its more than they expect, Bounds said. We try to keep everything in good shape, working order and very presentable.

The coronavirus pandemic hit just as the clubs 2020 schedule began. Public events were canceled and now, Bounds said, we are taking things month by month.

As soon as public events resume, they will be listed on the clubs website, cedar-astronomers.org/events.

If the skies are clear, we have the scopes up and operating, Bounds said. The club will be out there, operating telescopes until the last person leaves.

What: Eastern Iowa Observatory and Learning Center at Palisade-Dows Preserve

Who: Only open for public events and to Cedar Amateur Astronomers club members

Where: 1365 Ivanhoe Road, Ely (about halfway between Ely and Mount Vernon at the Palisades-Dows Preserve)

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Website: cedar-astronomers.org

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Eastern Iowa Observatory offers a chance to see the stars and so much more - The Gazette

Solar Orbiter sends back the closest photos of the Sun ever taken – Astronomy Magazine

Another instrument, the Solar and Heliospheric Imager (SoloHI), sent back shots of the zodiacal light, which occurs when sunlight reflects off dust particles in our solar system. Although these images dont signify a new discovery, taking them required SoloHI to tamp down the Suns glare to just a trillionth its actual brightness. By successfully completing the task, researchers are confident SoloHI can produce the image quality needed to study the solar wind (the instruments intended purpose) once the mission ramps up.

The Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI) also beamed back high-resolution data showing the Suns intricate and powerful magnetic field. And in a first, PHI revealed a view of a local magnetic field on the Sun that was not visible from Earth at the time, exemplifying just one advantage of the spacecrafts intentionally tilted orbit.

The Suns magnetic field drives numerous internal processes, which can produce solar flares and other powerful outbursts. Such energetic solar events can affect us here on Earth, too from sparking stunning auroras to knocking out satellite communications and earthbound power grids. But by monitoring the Sun with spacecraft such as Solar Orbiter and the Parker Solar Probe, scientists should be able to better predict when Earth-affecting space weather will occur.

All in all, these first results show that we still have much to learn about our home star, as well as the forces that power its frequently finicky behavior. Solar Orbiter is off to an excellent start, said project scientist Daniel Mller. We are all really excited about these first images but this is just the beginning.

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Solar Orbiter sends back the closest photos of the Sun ever taken - Astronomy Magazine

Northern Arizona Astronomy: The lives of stars – Grand Canyon News

Stars are hot bodies of glowing gas that begin their lives within a nebula of cold gas and dust that formed through gravitational and other forces that drew together enough material that the pressure was enough to produce nuclear fusion within their cores.

Their diameters range from the small Red Dwarfs, as small as 8 percent that of our sun, to the Hyper-Giants, with some being well over 1500 times as large. They vary widely in mass and temperature as well, masses ranging from 1/20 to over 60 solar masses, and with surface temperatures from 3,000 degrees to over 50,000 degrees Celsius. The colors of stars are determined by their temperatures, with the hottest being blue and the coolest red. Our Sun is a small star having a surface temperature of 5,500 degrees Celsius with its color appearing yellow. But, a stars lifetime, how they die, and what they become, depends on their mass only.

In the beginning, all stars are born in a region of high density Nebulae consisting of gas and dust, where they condense into huge globules which contract under their own gravity. The regions of condensing matter then begin to heat up from friction and compression, and start to glow forming proto-stars. If a proto-star contains enough matter to produce a central temperature of 15 million degrees Centigrade or more, then nuclear reactions (where Hydrogen fuses to form Helium) occur. At this point the star begins to release energy, stopping it from contracting further, which causes it to shine. It is now on a path called the Main Sequence Stage.

The very large stars, three solar masses and above, undergo the following: These stars shine steadily until the Hydrogen has fused to form Helium (taking only millions of years). The massive star then becomes a Red Supergiant, starting off with a Helium core surrounded by a shell of cooling, expanding gas. Over the next million years, or so, a series of nuclear reactions occur which produce a variety of different elements in shells around an Iron core. After the external radiation gives out and gravity takes over, the core collapses in a very short time, causing an explosion, a Supernova, in which a shock wave blows off the outer layers of the star. (These actual Supernovae can shine brighter than the entire galaxy for a period of weeks). If the core survives the explosion, and is 1.5 to 3 solar masses, it will contract to become a tiny, very dense, Neutron Star. If the core is greater than 3 solar masses, it will exceed the Neutron density pressure and contract to become a Black Hole.

Small Stars, about one and a half Solar Masses or less: A star of one solar mass, such as our Sun, will remain on the Main Sequence for about 10 billion years, until all of the Hydrogen has fused to form Helium. The Helium core will then start to contract further and reactions begin to occur in a shell around the core. The center is now hot enough for the Helium to fuse into Carbon. The outer layers begin to expand, cool and shine less brightly. This expanding star becomes a Red Giant. The remaining core (about 80 percent of the original star) is now in its final stages, where the core cools and dims to become a White Dwarf star.

Although we visibly see the very brightest, high mass stars in the evening sky, they live the shortest lives, some being only a few million years. The stars that live the longest are the small Red Dwarfs, many of which will live on for trillions of years, longer than the Universe has been in existence.

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Northern Arizona Astronomy: The lives of stars - Grand Canyon News

The Care of our COMMON HOME fires up Priests of Goa – Oherald

19 Jul 2020 | 05:29am IST

Basilio G. Monteiro

hanks to the internet and social media, there has been recently a flurry of heartwarming news snippets about the priests in Goa engaged in agricultural/farming work along with their parishioners. The Goan diaspora is enthralled by the sight of young folks making farming cool again.

Due to many historical accidents and particularly driven by pseudo-development models fuelled by neo-liberal economics, domestic farming and self-sustenance agriculture fell out of favour.

Farming came to be seen with less dignity and derided by those aspiring to move to the ranks of the middle-class and up. The fertile land, which, for generations, reliably fed all inhabitants, has been ransacked by greedy, unscrupulous and incompetent developers in collusion with some corrupt politicians.

This pandemic lockdown, despite its built-in pain, has awakened in us a renewed appreciation for food grown in ones backyard and by oneself.

Pope Francis, in the last chapter of his letter Laudato Si, speaks about ecological education and spirituality; the farming ministry of the priests in Goa invites us to consider the frayed relationship between the human roots and the ecological crisis.

The COVID-19 lockdown underscored Pope Francis letter on the CARE of OUR COMMON HOME, in which he encourages us to act:

Yet all is not lost. Human beings, while capable of the worst, are also capable of rising above themselves, choosing again what is good, and making a new start, despite their mental and social conditioning. We are able to take an honest look at ourselves, to acknowledge our deep dissatisfaction and to embark on new paths to authentic freedom. No system can completely suppress our openness to what is good, true and beautiful, or our God-given ability to respond to his grace at work deep in our hearts. I appeal to everyone throughout the world not to forget this dignity which is ours. No one has the right to take it from us (205).

A good number of priests in Goa are engaged in farming for quite some time, with the enthusiastic encouragement of Archbishop Filipe Neri Ferrao. The students at Saligao and Rachol seminaries and of the Pastoral Institute at Old Goa have been fruitfully living off the land for quite a few years.

On a recent quick survey among the priests in Goa, I discovered, with utmost delight, that a significant number of them across Goa are taking, without any fanfare, very good care of our Common Home, albeit in small patches of land in their respective backyards or in neighbouring fields.

A few examples arepaddy cultivation at Sao Jose De Areal, Quelossim, Curtorim and Benaulim (this one in an area of 6000 sq meters); farms are being fostered in Carambolim, Veluz, Old Goa and many other villages.

Rachol Seminary students have been engaged in cultivating their own paddy fields for their self-sustenance, with the collaboration of farmhands from nearby villages, who offer their services free of charge; after the paddy season is over, the fields are converted into vegetable gardens; the seminary has a productive collaboration with the Horticulture Department of the Government of Goa.

Saligao Seminary daily time-table includes work in the kitchen garden, where the students grow more than twenty kinds of vegetables, relishing them at the dining table. The efforts of the Calangute parish leadership turned to be highly influential in getting some folks from the village to cultivate their lands again, in one case after 15 years, and in another, after 25 years.

It is noteworthy that Fr Bolmax Pereira, armed with a PhD in Botany, is leading an eager generation of millennials in reclaiming the fallow lands of Chicalim; they even formed an enthusiastic Chicalim Youth Farmers Club, while the Pilar Fathers have been faithful guardians of our Common Home in Sanguem and Pilar, besides Birondem, where they run a farm belonging to the archdiocese.

The Don Bosco Agricultural Education Complex in Sulcorna, pioneered and managed by the Salesians, is where the relationship between ecology and spirituality is cultivated in the minds and the hearts of the students. Their work in the agricultural renaissance in Goa is prodigious.

The Redemptorists on the Porvorim hillock have an innovative initiative towards a sustainable planet: RED ROCK GREENS (RRG). Given the rocky 10000 sq metres at their disposal, they launched into terrace gardening, which led to a farmers market with 30 farmers participating in this collective.

Their venture in rain water harvesting, stands as a model for other villages to harvest the bountiful rainwater. Vagator parish kitchen garden serves as a small feeder to the neighbours in need and Borim parish garden generously distributes tenddli, bananas and papayas to its neighbours.

There are young fellows whom I came to know, looking for collaboration with other equally minded young Goans, such as Adv Gideon Noronha (Vasco), who is committed to a renaissance of the comunidade land, the young Lance Godinho (Verna), passionate about rainwater harvesting, and Hychinta Aguiar (Divar), who walks villages to map the biodiversity of Goa.

Farming is a collective enterprise, where human bonds are formed, nurtured, valued, and interdependency is experienced as asine qua non for healthy living. In this collective exercise we discover our common humanity and realize that well cultivated relationships in shared hardships of cultivating the land are indispensable for integral human development and integral living in the village community.

This COVID-19 pandemic woke us up to a profound spiritual reality that humans need to connect with the transcendent. Pope Francis eloquently reflects on this fundamental and noble dimension of our life intertwined between the care of the nature and care for each other:

Care for nature is part of a lifestyle which includes the capacity for living together and communion. Jesus reminded us that we have God as our common Father and that this makes us brothers and sisters. Fraternal love can only be gratuitous; it can never be a means of repaying others for what they have done or will do for us. That is why it is possible to love our enemies. This same gratuitousness inspires us to love and accept the wind, the sun and the clouds, even though we cannot control them. In this sense, we can speak of a universal fraternity (228).

The pain of the COVID-19 lockdown ought not to be in vain. The re-awakening to the fact that the soil of the earth sustains us compels us to discover our humanity, our spirituality and helps us to build and value human bonds as well as cultivate a harmonious community.

(The writer is a Diocesan priest from Goa teaching at St. Johns University, New York).

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‘Staggering’ Russia report reveals why government batted off Brexit interference claims – Sky News

This is staggering the UK doesn't know if Russia interfered in the Brexit vote because it never sought to ask!

For years ministers have consistently batted off questions about whether Vladimir Putin's regime attempted to meddle in the EU referendum, saying that there was no evidence of "successful interference".

We now know why.

They had never specifically instructed MI5, MI6 and GCHQ - the intelligence and security agencies tasked with protecting the UK - with looking at precisely this issue.

It is a damning finding from a report by the powerful Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) that Boris Johnson ensured did not see the light of day until long after the last election in December.

Kevan Jones, a Labour member of the intelligence watchdog, who also sat on the previous ISC that compiled the report, called it a "scandal".

It is hard not to disagree, especially as it is not as though there were no warning bells for the previous Theresa May and David Cameron governments.

The report noted there was ample publicly available evidence of Russian attempts to use disinformation, fake news and social media bots to amplify the messages of pro-Scottish independent voices during the independence referendum in 2014.

Splitting off Scotland from the rest of the UK is exactly the kind of action President Putin's regime is alleged to seek in its efforts to weaken Western unities and democratic alliances.

It should come as no surprise to anyone that Britain tearing itself apart over whether or not to leave the European Union would also be supported by Moscow, regardless of the result - it left the UK significantly distracted for the past four years. Job done.

MPs say blame lies at the foot of ministers, but questions might also be raised about why MI5, MI6 and GCHQ did not try harder to grip what the report describes as the "hot potato" that is defending the UK's democratic processes.

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'Staggering' Russia report reveals why government batted off Brexit interference claims - Sky News

The Second Druggies The Double Oppression That Female Drug Addicts In India Face – Feminism in India

5 mins read

Posted by Abhijit Dhillon

The idea of drugs and drug addiction generally creates an image of a man lying on a pavement oblivious to the world or rich teenage boys with humongous amounts of cash at their disposal enjoying expensive shots of drugs.Though the class aspect of drug abuse is captured in our picturisation, we often fail to understand this from a gendered aspect of the drug addiction. Why is there not enough literature or even interventions for female drug addicts? And just because there is largely a blind eye turned towards female drug addicts, it does not mean that substance abuse among females does not exist at all.

Why is there not enough literature or even interventions for female drug addicts? And just because there is largely a blind eye turned towards female drug addicts, it does not mean that substance abuse among females does not exist at all.

Also read: What Neha Shorees Murder Tells Us About Punjabs Drug Problem

Recently, a popular news channel reported how a mother in Amritsar chained her daughter to the bed to prevent her from taking drugs. As unbelievable it may havesounded, it was just one story that got reported from the many others under the radar because of the lack of media and academia attention to the problem. A 2018 study conducted by the United Nations Office on Drugs Crime (UNODC) acknowledged that abuse among female drug addicts is particularly hard to capture. The problem lies in the under representation of female drug addicts in most surveys as well as the limited treatment facilities available to them. For instance, Punjab (often seen as the hub of drug addicts in India) has 31 government-run de-addiction centres. Of them, there is only one de-addiction center dedicated exclusively to female drug addicts.It was however, only as recently as in March 2019, the state government had ordered for separate women-only wards in the de-addiction centres, so as to mitigate the problem of inaccessibility to healthcare by women addicts.

However, a double-jeopardy stares in the face of the female drug addicts, similar to the double-oppression of women underlined in the Second Sex by feminist writer Simon De Beauvoir. These oppressive layers operate based on gender and the socio-legal policies and system.

The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime(UNODC)s World Drug Report: Booklet 5 on Women and Drugspublished in 2018 shows that female drug addicts constitute one-third of drug users globally and one-fifth of the global estimated number of people who inject drugs (PWID). Female drug addicts who inject drugs have a greater vulnerability than men to HIV, hepatitis C and other blood-borne infections due to syringe sharing.

Magnitude of substance abuse in India (2019) by Ministry of Social Justice And Empowerment is a government report which is an output from the project National Survey on Extent and Pattern of Substance Use in India. The report acknowledges that people affected by drug use are one of the most marginalised and under-served populations. Imagine being a female drug addicts now, in the midst of an already marginalised and under-served population.

There is considerably more stigma around female drug addicts than male drug addicts. Female drug addicts are considered doubly deviant by the society. While male addicts are considered deviant, courtesy their criminalisation, female drug addicts apart from being seen as criminals for taking drugs, are also vilified for transgressing their socially accepted role of a care-giver, again becoming a factor to in their double marginalisation.

Further, there is considerably more stigma around female drug addicts than male drug addicts. Female drug addicts are considered doubly deviant by the society. While male addicts are considered deviant, courtesy their criminalisation, female drug addicts apart from being seen as criminals for taking drugs, are also vilified for transgressing their socially accepted role of a care-giver, again becoming a factor to in their double marginalisation.

If this was not enough, the majority of known women drug addicts, are generally involved in the occupation of sex work. The only female government-run Nakiran De-addiction Centre in Punjab situated in Kapurthala, runs a pilot program for female drug users (FDU). The project focuses on a comprehensive health and rights-based response for female drug addicts and aims to achieve a holistic harm reduction rather than just de-addiction. This project has focused mainly on sex workers and why they do not want a de-addiction program to begin with. According to them, taking drugs makes their work easier. Most women who come forward for the harm reduction treatments are women who are sex workers. Their line of work makes them susceptible to drug abuse. The relation between sex workers and drug use is bidirectional. Prostitution is seen as a cause as well as an effect for women to use drugs.

Other female drug addicts who came to fight addictions at the Centre at Kapurthala were mostly from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Trauma and difficult childhoods in the past were seen in almost all cases. This argument provides a solid ground that the socio-cultural and psycho-economic consequences in the cases of female drug addicts are often ignored.

Also read: Udta Punjab: The Problem Isnt the Drugs, Its the Patriarchy

The pandoras box that womens substance abuse opens up is something neither the governments nor the society want to address. Further, the spillages that taking this issue to the public forum can have on the society make all the stake-holders, including the women, to keep mum and maintain the veil of secrecy. The denial is shaped by both psychological and social factors of the drug users.

The scant literature on female drug addicts shows that, Indian women are more vulnerable to adverse physical and social consequences of substance abuse. The identification of female drug addicts by health care professionals is hindered by the stereotypes around them.

The scant literature on female drug addicts shows that, Indian women are more vulnerable to adverse physical and social consequences of substance abuse. The identification of female drug addicts by health care professionals is hindered by the stereotypes around them. This shunning then closes doors for dialogue and necessary interventions and strategies. The need of the times is to recognise substance abuse in females not in a vacuum, but in a contextual, empathetic and non-patriarchal systemic approach, so that help reaches them when its time.

A female drug addict in India is in a complex psycho-social, political and economic spiral which, along with the societal vilification she faces, does little to improve her condition. Though there are governmental policies and programmes both at the national and state level, most of them are gender-blind. The need for a gender-sensitive policy is important for systemic changes at all levels which can lead to a better world where female drug addicts are seen as patients and not as morally corrupt societal misfits.

Featured Image Source: The Hindu

Abhijit Dhillon has done her masters in Human Rights and Duties and has a certification in Women Studies from Panjab University, Chandigarh. She is a feministout and out and believes about bringing a change through unlearning the existing social patterns. She can be found onInstagram.

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The Second Druggies The Double Oppression That Female Drug Addicts In India Face - Feminism in India