XPost: sci.space.policy   
   From: henry@spsystems.net   
      
   In article <1111030486.125557.75740@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com>,   
     wrote:   
   >As somebody else mentioned, a large baseline optical interferometer is   
   >likely to give more info for a much smaller price.   
      
   No, it depends on what sort of information you are after.  In particular,   
   optical interferometers are useless for spectroscopy and are usable for   
   imaging only on fairly bright objects (because you need a fair number of   
   photons per second to form detectable interference fringes).  For many   
   astronomical purposes, there is just no substitute for lots of mirror area.   
      
   Current preference seems to be to build 2-4 quite large telescopes within   
   maybe 100m of each other (e.g., the two Kecks and the four-telescope ESO),   
   so they can be used individually for general-purpose astronomy and   
   experimentally together for interferometry.   
   --   
   "Think outside the box -- the box isn't our friend."    |   Henry Spencer   
                                   -- George Herbert       | henry@spsystems.net   
      
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