| A lot!
The OMI is designed to deliver a very high level of performance
and will certainly outperform all amateur instruments in the world
in terms of wide field imaging!
From its cutting edge design, to its advanced materials, to a
carefully chosen site and the very advanced technology the One
Metre initiative has sufficient performance to outperform telescopes
several times its size in terms of scientific yield. A fully autonomous
queued operation will allow the instrument to be used from anywhere
in Canada or the world. In essence the One Metre Initiative will
"Kick Ass".
Beyond the traditional areas that amateurs have ventured into
such as deep sky imaging, supernovae search, comet hunting among
others the One Metre Initiative can tackle much more difficult
observational challenges such as measuring extra galactic Cepheid
variables in M31, M33 and other nearby galaxies, to searching
for Keiper Belt Objects and looking for faint globular clusters
orbiting the Milky Way Galaxy, to looking for planets, the list
is almost endless. I have compiled a short list of potential projects
that would be well suited to the One Metre Initiative.
OMI
observing rojects.pdf (173 KB)
The Following is a demonstration of how the One Metre Initiative
could impact current amateur activities:
1. Deep Sky Imaging: This particular area is where the
great bulk of amateur efforts are concentrated. The One Metre
Initiative will surpass by a large margin all current activity.
Not only can the One Metre Initiative reach several magnitudes
deeper but cover 5 square degrees in one image. The images generated
are expected to be extremely spectacular and significantly push
the envelope. For example a 5 hour exposure in the L band (400-700
nm) would reach fainter than magnitude 26 and 20 hours could reach
magnitude 27. These fields would be filled with up to hundreds
of thousands of galaxies some no more than a few pixels.
Even the faintest identified Milky Way globular clusters would
spring to life with hundreds of individual stars visible and even
the modest globulars would appear to be quite spectacular. All
the thousands of well known and lesser well known objects are
just a hint of the extant of the which the sky is filled with
star clusters, galaxies, nebulae, no matter where the One Metre
Initiative is pointed jewels will appear. The Great Andromeda
galaxy could be imaged in tricolor with two frames, 2.23°
x 4.46° degrees to magnitude 25 in some 4 hours!
2. Supernovae Search: Currently a very hot area where
amateurs have made contributions detecting some two hundred plus
supernovae over the past 10 or so years. The ability to search
hundreds of square degrees down to faint limiting magnitudes (~24)
in a single night could potentially yields dozens of SN and hundreds
over the course of a year. Thus the One Metre Initiative could
become an extremely significant contributor to the field of supernovae
research.
3. Comet Hunting: An area where amateurs until fairly
recently have dominated the field. With the deep limiting magnitude
comets could be discovered far out into the solar system. Discoverers
names are attached to the comet. It is expected that the One Metre
Initiative will discover a large number of comets.
How do amateurs get involved?
A certain percentage of the time will be devoted towards outlook
and education of which amateur astronomers are expected to become
significant users. Time will be booked (queued) and depending
on demand could be very hard to get.
Shares:
A more direct way to get involved is for individuals, organizations
and groups to acquire shares in the corporation and effectively
own part of the telescope time. This would guarantee them a minimum
time depending on the percentage of shares. It should be noted
here that shareholders will own part of the entire facility (which
includes the Visitor Centre) not just the One-Metre and could
expect an annual Return-On-Investment (ROI) of up 100% or more.
Thus within 1 year the entire original investment could be returned
and generate a nice profit afterwards. A second 0.7m telescope
will also be available to share holders. The amount of shares
to be made available will be very limited; a prospectus is available
to interested investors.
Interested parties can contact us:
invest@onemetreinitiative.com
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