To whom it may Concern,
I had an idea this week. I don’t know if it’s feasible or not, but I thought I might bounce it off other peoples brains a little bit. I sent it to Sky and Telescope, and they just blew me off with a form letter, so hopefully this will get to an actual person who could tell me (a) not possible (b) worth looking at (c) sounds like it could work. I was thinking that maybe a company in the field of Astrophotography might try it, and use it as an advertisement. Heck, I don’t know, I just come up with these harebrain ideas.
So, here it is: What if someone co-coordinated a lot of Amateur Astronomers to all view the same object at the same time. Then sending real time images to someone with the software to stack the most usable ones. Like people along the same longitude, but at different latitudes. Would it give a 3-D image? I know it wouldn’t be much considering the distance to an object, but maybe an object like M42 would show a little different detail. I guess it would be like pooling computer power. I just thought that there is a lot of usable glass out there if someone could capitalize on it, and it would be a fun project, maybe for a big Astronomy club. I got the idea from reading about the huge segmented telescope being built in, I think it is Puerto Rico.
Anyway, I would just like to get a little feedback from someone in the know. So, if you have a minute would you tell me what your thoughts are?
Don Risner
Amateur Astronomers of Jackson (Michigan) Where cloudy skies, and cold patch rule!