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The Humble Space Telescope
frank249 writes " How would you like to do your own astronomy research with a space-based telescope? Sounds unlikely? Perhaps today, since there's only one available, and NASA has it booked pretty solid. However, this is about to change. The Canadian Space Agency just signed a contract to launch Canada's first space telescope, is scheduled to be launched in October 2002. If successful, millions of astronomers worldwide will have access to a more humble version of NASA's Hubble via the internet. It is scheduled to be launched in October 2002 as part of a multiple payload mission from Plesetsk, Russia, on an SS-19 based launch vehicle called Rockot. The SS-19 was supposed to be destroyed as part of an Arms reduction treaty so why not get some use out of it?" And it's so cute, it looks like mod furniture.
Amazing... the same stuff that keeps us polite make satellites small! Wonders never cease...
As a former HST employee, I just wanted to let you know that the astronomical data from the Hubble Space Telescope is available online to anyone who wants access! Of course, astronomers have a certain time period before their data becomes available to give them a chance to analyze it first. It used to be a year, I believe. After that, it's available from http://archive.stsci.edu/hst/search_retrieve.html. That page should have all the info needed to start.
Happy stargazing!
One of the team leaders was on a CBC radio science show. He said that while the $3 billion Hubble was designed to be good at many different observation tasks, the MOST will be great in only a few limited tasks. It would be, as noted in the proposal STELLAR SEISMOLOGY FROM SPACE , ironic if an optical telescope only 15 cm across, armed only with a broadband photometer and with a budget of only about Cdn$12M, could probe the cores of stars and set a limit on the age of the Universe thus shedding new light on a fundamental question in cosmology.
He also said that an unprecedented amount of time will be allocated to amateur observer projects through a public outreach programme.
After MOST achieves its primary scientific goals, we plan to give the Canadian public a chance to make observations with this unique space observatory. In conjunction with the RASC (Royal Astronomical Society of Canada), an Amateur Observers' Contest will be held. Amateur astronomers and students will be able to submit observing proposals for MOST, with the technical support of Canadian astronomers.
The MOST Project also plans to spread information about our project and its science through the Pacific Space Centre in Vancouver, B.C.
Today's vices may be tomorrow's virtues.