ATM Amateur Space Telescope, (AST)

[Jack Schmidling <arf@mc.net>]

Speaking of "pushing the envelope"...

Amateur radio operators, commonly known as "Hams" have built and talked
NASA and several other countries into launching, amateur communications
satellites.

Now, a steerable space telescope is a far cry from an orbiting
transponder but the idea of doing it is not totally without merit.
We all know that the Hubble cost about a Billion but considering it's 
monstrous size and more importantly, it was built by the government and  
government contractors, there just may be a little fat in there that 
amateurs working pro bono might be able to skim off.

I can't think of anything more exciting amateur astronomers could do
than to build a 12 or 16 inch space telescope and if it could be done 
for a million dollars, I suspect we could find a way to raise the money.

What do you all think?

Let's keep the discussion public.  I do not want to be burried in email
unless it is subscriptions.  Just think, 1000 amateurs, subscribing
$1000 ea, would get us a million before the long weekend is over.  
That's the price of a modest backyard scope these days.  

Just think of logging on the AST Web site and saying, "to hell with the 
street lights and this crappy weather, let's see what Jupiter really 
looks like".

js

p.s.  My $1000 check is in the mail.

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