Vote On What the Very Large Telescope Observes

arisvega writes "The Slashdot crowd may be aware of VLT, the Very Large Telescope array (a collaboration between several European countries). It's located at the Atacama desert in Chile, operating at the visible and infrared wavelengths and producing some very detailed images and exciting new science. It has been significantly boosting astronomy and astrophysics research for the past couple of years without the hassle and the expenses of orbital observatories. Now, and for the first time in its history, there is a public invitation calling you to vote on which of the 16 proposed locations you would like the array to be pointed at, without the need for a scientific proposal. Astronomers are standing by to do your bidding!"

My Next door neighbor!

[Anonymous Coward]

That way I dont look creepy looking through mine any more :-)

Re:

[Taco Cowboy]

Your neighbor is not that important

Methinks the Very Large Telescope should be used to observe the following:

1. The Second Coming of Jesus (maybe this time He is coming on a flying saucer or something like that)

2. ET - and maybe this time the ET knows how to use mobile phone to "call home"

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Then perhaps Barbara Steisand's beachfront property.

Re:

[antdude]

Are your neighbor attractive? :P

Re:

[mcgrew]

If he needs a VLT she's probably REALLY fat.

Re:

[bky1701]

Just ignore the trolls. I know there are a lot of them lately. Slashdot's moderation system seems to have been co-opted by sockpuppets, but that's no excuse to feed ones at -1.

Re:

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

Awww... angry cos somebody's filling in for Rush today?

Insert obligatory Uranus joke here

[MSRedfox]

Insert obligatory Uranus joke here...

Re:

[fm6]

You forgot the obligatory Futurama reference:

http://www.comedycentral.com/video-clips/a6o404/futurama-smelloscope [comedycentral.com]

Re:

[fustakrakich]

I propose that the next planet we discover be named "balloon knot"

Re:

[maxwell demon]

Sorry, but the Goatse black hole is not on the list of objects.

The Sun!

[RightwingNutjob]

...hehe...suckers!

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

But only at night.

Not an observation with the Array

[ogre7299]

The target will not be observed with the array of four telescopes, rather just one of the telescopes will do the observation. Taking data simultaneously with all four telescopes is a tricky procedure and yields data, while extremely useful scienfically, it's very different from the pretty pictures that this contest is after.

Magellanic Cloud and Eta Carinae

[djl4570]

The facility is in the southern hemisphere so the Magellanic Clouds are observable.
Compile monthly or weekly observations of Eta Carinae that can be edited into a video or slideshow.

Point it at Hubble

[Lord_of_the_nerf]

Part staring contest, part engineering contest.

Itself

[bky1701]

How else will it know it exists!?

What is /.'s pick?

[JumperCable]

What is the most interesting? Closest?

I'd vote for...

[Yaa 101]

Gum 19 — star-forming region with variable star V391 Velorum

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

It is more like voting on the name of the new bridge, not the design specs. This is to get the public interested in the project, not to resolve disputes over time sharing between serious research. The experts already weighed in on deciding how much time to allocate to this and what targets to choose from. This would only go wrong if they screwed up bad enough that it would be the equivalent of a bridge's name plate being load bearing and allowing the length of the name to impact structural integrity.

How do they expect ...

[PPH]

... me to participate in a poll without the CowboyNeal option?

Re:

[Chris Burke]

All of the observations will be of Cowboy Neal.

The voting is just on where to send him first.

Uranus

[Osgeld]

next question please

Re:

[Mazda6s]

Beat me to it.

Why the moon offcourse ...

[giorgist]

That way we can prove once and for all that NASA never ...

Re:

[maxwell demon]

AFAIK the resolution of VLT isn't sufficient for that.

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[mcgrew]

The moon is off course? PANIC!!!!

IMNAA

[symes]

I know nothing about how these things work, but I do like nice pictures. Some of the most facinating I've seen recently are of the surface of the sun - can we get some more of these?

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[the_other_chewey]

No. The VLT's telescopes are machines very carefully designed to be able to detect the faintest amounts of light possible. Pointing them at the sun would result in zero pictures and be followed by a Very Large Repair, essentially rebuilding everything that isn't the static support structure or the mirrors (and I'm not even sure about the mirrors).

subject

[Legion303]

Quick, everyone flood the poll with "your mom."