Two Good Projects That I Don't Have Time For

In both cases, a sufficiently promising initial study should be enough to
land a starting grant from NASA or the NSF.

I - Feasibility Study of a Portable Radio Telescope

Identify the largest Seyfert galaxy in the sky, and decide if it is
possible to resolve it with a backyard radio antenna made from the largest
commercially available, home tv satellite dish. If it is, sort the list of
active galactic nuclei by size and identify all other resolvable ones.
Find the RF band in which AGN are brightest, and research the availability
of reasonably priced RF detectors in that band. If none are available, try
to find an RF band in which reasonably priced detectors are available, but
AGN are not too dim to provide useful images.

II - Design Study of a Miniature Interferometer

Write a design paper for an optical interferometer based on a pair of 30
inch, off-the-shelf telescopes. Design or otherwise identify the interface
optics necessary to connect the telescopes' eyepieces to a signal conduit
of fiber optic cable. Invent the tuning mechanism required to match the
optical path lengths of the two signal lines with a sufficient degree of
accuracy to produce a useful interferogram. The tuning mechanism should be
based on a calibrated screw thread of 40 threads per inch, and installed at
the fiber-optic interface of one of the two eyepieces.