Donor Suport For Third World Astro

[Kedar]

Dear Fraser Cain

I have the following suggestions for your e newsletter.
It will be good if you could provide us information about Donors who could support us to get good telescopes.

Even after 400 years of invention of telescope, these instruments are not available in Nepal. many people could not even see the recent transit due to lack of instruments. OUr government doesnot understand the need to develop astronomy. We need help from donors and friends abroad.

Therefore such info on donors will be helpful for astro groups like us

Yours sincerely
Galileo Astronomical Society of Pokhara - GASPO
Kathmandu Nepal
Tel: +(977 1) 4-359583
http://www.geocities.com/kedarbadu/gaspo.html
http://www.space-frontier.org/Projects/per...nepal/nepal.htm

[Tom2Mars]

Awwww, Gee Folks! No response to this request? This breaks my heart, really.

I can understand why the UT Forum X-Prize entry idea would be hard to actually do, but this...? Maybe you could get the UT members to put up $1 each for materials and some students could build a couple telescopes for these kids. I googled up low-cost telescope building, and found references to Dobsonian telescopes.

There are lots of them, one was at:Dobsonian

Another at this Nasa address had a nice quote:Dobsonian With Quote

"If there were a million amateur astronomers with telescopes, and they were willing to let a few thousand people each look through their telescopes, there would be a chance for the people in the world who wanted to see to see."
John Dobson

[StarLab]

Hey, guys, I think what Tom and Kedar are requesting of us is completely doable. Not only could we throw in a few bucks each, but we could all go public about it...I mean literally, raise public awareness. I know that we got members from all over the world, and if a few members live close by each other, as in a major city, then I say get together and grab the press. Do some public live-action attention-grabbing. It'll get more for UT, and more for Nepal. Sounds like a good idea to me. Let's all become active. Fraser could add this to his list of 101 ways to become scientifically active in our communities. Except, this particular stunt we could all easily do.

[damienpaul]

All endeavours such as suggested here are doable...ironically, I am already organising a similar venture for meteorology.

But yes, count me in.

Well a group of us did donate a computer system to a school near the Ugandan?tanzanian border, they view UT as well!! but what a new world for them!

[kashi]

You should setup a paypal account Kedar. I'm sure there would be plenty of forum memebers who would happily contribute.

[Tom2Mars]

I just checked "home built telescope" in Google again to see about prices and this was an inspirational page about helping others get started: 'Scope Building with John Dobson reference

And "Mike" had a good page at: $150 Homebuilt Scope

So, it looks like $150 at least, and some time. If I were to take my $1 per person suggestion, and be reminded that 90+% of folks might not participate, then I could put in $15 to a pay pal account and that would be 10% of the money needed for the first scope.

Then there would be the time to construct. Hmmmm...Seems somewhere around here, I heard that there were some folks that were in some amateur astronomy clubs. Maybe one of those clubs could do the first scope, then rotate the task on to the next club, take turns?

[Tom2Mars]

Update! It's been about 20 hours since my last posting on this, and there has been no activity.

Here is a quote from the " 'Scope Building with John Dobson reference" link:

"It's not a skills issue; it's really a matter of staying focused and interested," Mike says.

So, It's my guess that unless some action happens on this every day...

It Isn't Going To Happen.

Let's prove StarLab right-

...this particular stunt we could all easily do.

[Chook]

You enthusiastic guys - we need a CO-ORDINATOR to take responsibility for this potential project.

Just sending a message out "we need help!" won't work.

How about enthusiastic and clever StarLab? Would you take it on, mate?

Then you can contact various UT members and appropriate bodies, appropriate the various tasks, and see that the job keeps on track.

How about it? B)

[alfchemist]

Hi guys! Sounds like a good plan. I hope you don't forget the kids and the kids at heart here in the Philippines too. When Mars was very visible with a naked eye many months back, It still looked like a star and required a telescope to appreciate it better. I don't know about the binoculars. But literally hundreds trooped to the streets late at night on their way here in our University to use the telescopes the UP AstroSoc was lending them. I'm sure an additional telescope would make a big difference. A telescope here is a luxury item and costs about half to three months salary of an ordinary worker. We have one relatively big telescope here in our University aside from those of the UP astrosoc with a lense diameter of about 7-10inches and about 3meters long. This was donated by the Japan govt, including the whole building that houses the telescope. The building is a teacher training center. But this big telescope is not very accessible to the public.

Perhaps, UT members, as a group could solicit or coordinate with donor groups like the Japan govt and other institutions. You're right, Chook! We, in UT, need a coordinator and move as on body