Re: Amateur astronomers prove their mettle

On Thu, 25 May 2006 07:47:00 -0400, John Kulczycki
<john.kulczycki@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

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 that a
lot of astronomers could use I think we'd get a lot more astronomy done.
The way it is now, you have to be a high priest of astronomy to get any
scope time at the astronomy temples. I think the faithful need access to
their own shrines where they can interpret the heavens for themselves.

I guess that depends on how you define "more astronomy". Certainly,
meter class scopes have many uses. But we've reached the point where
most of the really big questions can only be answered with really big
scopes. Professional astronomers _do_ use smaller instruments when
possible, but the big scopes are critical, and it is precisely because
time on them is so scarce that we need more.

This case is a good example of how things work. An inexpensive setup
served well as a survey device, but any serious information about this
extrasolar system will require data from a large, expensive scope.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com
.

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