Small Telescopes Make Big Discoveries

1) searching for exoplanets is hot at the moment, it's a selling point.

2) these smallish telescopes are in the price range of poorer nations - not of the people maybe but certainly in range of the budgets of educational institutions or local governments wanting to please their constituents.

3) the nations mentioned are poor, can't afford expensive stuff, and this may spark off general scientific interest amongst their people.

4) it doesn't make sense promoting it to rich countries, because they'll consider it "too cheap" or "not good enough" or whatever.

So yes, one does have to do with another. Whether a lot of new discoveries will come out of them remains to be seen but with more eyes pointing towards the sky, the overall chance of making discoveries is definitely increasing.

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/NK1UFT-5MO4/small-telescopes-make-big-discoveries

Ashton Eaton London 2012 basketball London 2012 Slalom Canoe Alex Morgan Misty May Treanor Lolo Jones Aly Raisman