I think Australia has a 5% share of Keck, our government has a small share
of several large observeries in the Northern Hemisphere. Quite a few CDD
Imaging system and one or two adaptive optics systems used around the world
are Australian made and designed. Trouble with doing it this way is not
much recognition, but 5-10% usage time of a few of the world class
facilities around the world adds up.

Also from northern Australia the Bowl of the Dig Dipper we can observe, I
did a few times from Darwin when I lived there and the are a few small
professional observeries in northern Australia.


"Chris L Peterson" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 10 Mar 2006 23:35:00 -0600, LarryG wrote:

Must be a truly powerful telescope if it can search the big dipper
from Australia. Doesn't a few thousand miles of ocean and rock
interfere with the spectra?

Believe it or not, they actually let Australian astronomers use the Keck
scopes now and then.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com