Any ex-Soviet telescopes idle and LINEAR capable ?

After the Soviet Union fell apart, the various republics found
themselves with some scientific institutions and equipment which the
Soviet Union had put on their soil.

They usually gave it to the universities, who didn't necessarily have
much use for it.

Or any money.

The comet hunters on the southern hemisphere will probably hate me for
this, but there is no LINEAR telescope down south. (LINEAR on the
northern hemisphere takes most of the comets discovered there).

Are there any ex-Soviet telescopes out of use, of a size capable of
doing Near Earth Asteroid work, sitting idle, which a suitable
Australian, South African, Argentinian or Chilean university could put
up down south ?

For that matter, another university could get itself a respectable
LINEAR like program, if it got a such telescope.

It would of course need work. It has probably not been maintained
since 1991.

Regards

Carsten Nielsen
Denmark

(Carsten Nielsen) wrote in message . com...
After the Soviet Union fell apart, the various republics found
themselves with some scientific institutions and equipment which the
Soviet Union had put on their soil.

They usually gave it to the universities, who didn't necessarily have
much use for it.

Or any money.

The comet hunters on the southern hemisphere will probably hate me for
this, but there is no LINEAR telescope down south. (LINEAR on the
northern hemisphere takes most of the comets discovered there).

Are there any ex-Soviet telescopes out of use, of a size capable of
doing Near Earth Asteroid work, sitting idle, which a suitable
Australian, South African, Argentinian or Chilean university could put
up down south ?

You did mean down North?
Here is one scope of maksutov that matches most of your criteriums:


"Maksutov's best and final work is generally regarded to be the
70-centimeter- (27.6-inch-) aperture double-meniscus astrograph known
as the AZT-16. This instrument was needed for fundamental astrometry,
a demanding application that required a fast focal ratio and a large
field free of lateral color and distortion. Maksutov employed a pair
of meniscus correctors to satisfy these exacting parameters.
He did finish the optics, though the entire instrument was not
completed until late 1964, a few months after his death on August
12th. The AZT-16 entered service four years later on Cerro Roble in
the Chilean Andes."
Picture is he
http://www.ImageHosting.com/images/Yuri/AZT16.jpg

regards, Yuri