Back in the early 1980s I read somewhere, possibly in Sky & Telescope, about the Amateur Space Telescope project. I sent an inquiry and got back some copies of a brochure. I still have them somewhere, but so far I was unable to find them.

The project, run by a group of Troy University (New York) students named Independent Space Research Group, also with international members, called for building a 50 cm space telescope with auxiliary equipment such as cameras and a photometer. It was expected to have a resolution of 0.02". It was to be launched in 1985 by a Shuttle flight and operated by amateur astronomers. Images would have been received with some sort of antenna/radio equipment connected to a TV set. The project was funded by donations and private money.

Since I never heard about the project later, I assume it failed. But I always wondered why. Technological issues? Funding? Or maybe the digital revolution in amateur astronomy imaging made it largely obsolete?


Paolo Amoroso

By "Troy University" you mean RPI, now less acronymically preferring Rensselaer. And of course once you get the name of the college correct, you can Google it a bit easier.

http://astro.umsystem.edu/atm/ARCHIVES/SEP96/msg00197.html

A resolution of 20 milliarcsecs?! No wonder the project failed -- their expectations were set a little too high.

If I recall correctly, the brochure only mentioned Troy, not Rensselaer. Thanks for the info.


Paolo Amoroso

I can still remember how happy I was when I first saw this.
Maybe it was not such a bad idea....but...
ISS-AT or ISS-AT