Re: Buying time on a professional telescope


"Brett" <nasanutbm@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1159792121.776495.269390@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Though a free session would be nice, we are willing to start
fundraisers in order to pay if necessary, but how much do these
sessions normally cost? Can it be done on a tight budget?
You don't give enough data to answer. What do you mean by 'time'. Visual
time, or imaging time?. Who are 'you'?. What is the intended 'use' of the
observations?. What do you want to observe?. How large a scope do you
need?. First thing to remember that few professional telescops these days
will have eyepieces, so 'time' on such scopes will always be 'imaging
time', not direct observation. If you are a school, or similar operation,
then there are scopes specifically setup to provide time for such
organisations. If your target, is an object that is already on a list for
an automated observatory, the data may well be available daily for free!.
This is true for targets like the Moon, and the brighter planets, as well
as for a limited number of DSO's. A typical example of a school/amateur
project, would be the Faulkes telescope project, which has two 2m
telescopes, one in Hawaii, and one in Australia, providing a number of
timeslots free to UK schools. There are then a number of 'discretionary'
free slots for UK astronomy societies, with charged for slots for
astronomy societies and schools from other countries. There are a number
of similar operations in the US, and Canada. The total cost of telescope
time, will vary massively with different instruments,but can vary from
perhaps $50/hour, to several thousand dollars per hour for a large scope.
The Keck for example, is calculated at just under $50,000/night...

Best Wishes


.

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