The Associated Press

LEXINGTON - A University of Kentucky professor is pushing to set up a telescope in Australia that students could use via the Internet.

Suketo Bhavsar, who works in the department of physics and astronomy, said the robotic telescope would be set up in Coonabara-bran, Australia, for use by UK and Fayette County students. The telescope would be owned by the university and operated locally in Lexington via the Internet.

Science students would use it for hands-on learning and for small research projects. Bhavsar said Australia is an ideal site because when it's night there and the best time for stargazing, it's daytime in Kentucky and students are in class.

The system would allow students to log on to a Web site connected to the telescope that would use a live image feed to browse the sky. With a click, photos could be taken and downloaded.

"The students using this telescope in Kentucky would be able to see objects even the largest telescopes in the continental U.S. can't see," said amateur Australian astronomer John Shobbrook, who is working with Bhavsar on the project. The new telescope would be in the southern hemisphere and "looking at ... a totally different part of the sky," he said.

Bhavsar got the idea in July 2003 while in Australia for an International Astronomical Union conference. Shobbrook showed him a small, remotely operated 2-year-old telescope owned by Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pa.

Shobbrook is in Lexington from Monday until Saturday to talk to UK professors and administrators about the telescope. The Kentucky Science and Engineering Foundation has financed a feasibility study.

Bhavsar is unsure how much the UK project would cost, but Shobbrook said the Muhlenberg telescope cost about $50,000 to build.

Bhavsar plans to apply for grants from the National Science Foundation and NASA in the fall to pay for the telescope with hopes the equipment could be running by August 2005, he said.

"It is very preliminary right now," Bhavsar said. "I'm looking for public support."

Both Bhavsar and Shobbrook want the University of Kentucky to pick up part of the tab.

"The bottom line is to motivate students to want to learn about math and physics," said Shobbrook.