nather@utastro.UUCP (Ed Nather) (08/27/84)
[] >>a) The sun shines 24 hours/day everywhere, not just out in space ... >I know Texas is in the Sun Belt, Ed, but REALLY! There is something called >NIGHT! Just ask Wendy if you don't believe me! She explained it to me, and you're right! I had always thought of it as just being in the shadow of an opaque earth, with the sun still blazing away 24 hrs a day ... >Ground-based astronomical OBSERVATION is slowly going out of business anyway, >because it can't compete with observations made from satellites, except in >lower cost... Howard A. Landman By the same reasoning: Ground-based automotive transport is slowly going out of business anyway, because it can't compete with airline travel, except in lower cost ... A rule of thumb to ponder: the cost of a ground-based instrument is about 1% the cost of the same instrument in a satellite. For $30,000 I can build a reasonable photometer for ground-based use. For space use the same instrument costs $3 million. I am seriously worried that nobody will consider astronomy important enough to spend that kind of money on it, and the profession will wither and die. Sunsats and their inevitable reflected light will hasten its death, and I really don't believe space astronomy, with its attendant costs, will be a viable replacement. Of course, I've been wrong before. It was in 1947 - I remember it clearly ... -- Ed Nather {allegra,ihnp4}!{ut-sally,noao}!utastro!nather Astronomy Dept., U. of Texas, Austin