Re: Amateur astronomers prove their mettle

John Kulczycki said:

You know, if the powers that be would stop looking to build telescope
monuments and just fund say 1000 or so 1.5 to 2 meter telescopes

*cough* There probably *are* about 1000 or so 1.5 to 2 m telescopes in
the world. And they *are* being used for research by professional
astronomers. It's just that they were all built around the turn of the
century. They don't just burn them down when they become obsolete.

The University of Victoria still uses the 1.83m (72inch) telescope at
the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory for instance. I even know of one
researcher in Prince George, British Columbia that's using a 0.5m
Cassegrain. The last I heard, he was studying double stars.

The big observatories just get all the press, since they tend to be the
ones doing the newest research to test theories on extremely faint
objects like the very earliest galaxies.

More important, most professionals spend less time making observations
and more time analysing data. Just like scientists in other disciplines
really.

.

Quantcast