Small Scopes

Upper size limit for Small Scopes?

This story from UPI describes a discovery with a "small" 0.9 meter telescope:

"The astronomers used the Exoplanet Tracker on the special 0.9-meter Coude feed system within the National Science Foundation's 2.1-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, Ariz.

The new planet is the most distant ever found using the Doppler technique with a telescope mirror less than 1 meter in size. There are hundreds of such telescopes worldwide, compared with just a handful of the larger telescopes more commonly used in planet finding, researchers said."

I'm impressed by the feat, but my definition of small means scopes that can be carried by a single individual, and generally with one hand.

posted by Tako John @ 6:04 PM