Optical Telescope Arrays by Amateur Astronomers?

fl_ska asks: "I recently attended a meeting of local amateur astronomers in my area known as The Local Group of Deep Sky Observers. After being blown away by views of the Orion Nebula and such, I got to thinking about the state of modern amateur astronomy. For instance, I recall reading about a project to link multiple optical telescopes so as to approximate the light-gathering capacity of a much larger telescope, a so called 'array of optical telescopes.' With the advent of the Web, it seems like it would be relatively easy to coordinate such a project via some central server which could then process and link images for all to view. I was wondering if there were any amateur astronomers out there who were possibly working on a similar project?"

"Could the same gains that were achieved with grid-computing be found in amateur telescope arrays? What kind of issues would be relevant to the problem of organizing such a project? Also, I once read about a way to correct for atmospheric perturbation by way of creating an artificial point of light in the upper atmosphere and, in real time, analyzing how the atmosphere acted on it. Could such a method be utilized by amateurs and would it detrimentally affect the original data set?"

Comments

I'd volunteer for this

[DesScorp]

I'd volunteer to help for a project like this, in whatever way I could contribute. Astronomy is the only science where amateurs can really help make a difference, and so tends to be very interesting to me. Hopefully there are some interested parties out there.....

Re:I'd volunteer for this

[torpor]

Astronomy is the only science where amateurs can really help make a difference...

I don't think this is true, in even the slightest bit.

Maybe you'll reconsider this statement in a few years, but 'amateur _anything_' is never a force to be discounted in any field...