Hi RL

If we thought we were seeing wonders then the next generation will be viewing things we have yet to imagine.

I envy your job even so.

My old astronomy mentor, Jim Barclay, is involved in the amateur robot controlled telescope project, which is just so cool. But you get to play with the Big Boys, the pro-scopes that us amateurs just dream about.

25 years from now there will be 100 metre fold-out or blow up scopes as good as OWL but light enough to orbit at L1/2 or even past Jupiter for infra-red obs. Imagine a super interferometer with a L1 to L2 baseline! Mind you to collect enough photons it will need quite a few pop-out scopes up there.

50 years from now there will be some big pop-ups on their way to the Solar Focus in a dozen different directions, since the "Focus" is a spherical region around the Sun in all directions... planetary surveys of the Galaxy will be feasible then. Or radio telescopes at the Solar Focus - imagine their resolution then!!!

Adam