[zeestephen]

According to Google, the altitude on Dome A is 4,093 meters.

[Gay State Conservative]

Much of Antarctica is,in fact,a desert.But I always thought that the very best place to put a telescope was in the Atacama Desert...a place where it can be ten years between episodes of measurable rainfall.

[Red Badger]

Is there a Starbucks nearby?....................

[P.O.E.]

Now that I’m thinking about it, what about a telescope on the dark side of the moon?

[Red Badger]

13,428 feet..................

[Ouchthatonehurt]

On earth?
Above is better.

[a fool in paradise]

Stick it where the Sun don’t shine.

[PLMerite]

I think we know how this turns out...

[budj]

OK, team, let’s focus on Polaris!

[left that other site]

Lousy Commute, though.

[Berosus]

The main drawback to a location in Antarctica is that you can only look at objects in the southern hemisphere of the sky.

[xp38]

It has its pluses and minuses. A -75C degree air temp is one of them. Also located in Antarctica it would miss a good chunk of the northern sky which say telescopes in Hawaii and Chile can observe.

[Wuli]

To me the best place for a human near earth telescope is on the moon. It would also be the basis for an initial permanent science colony. Or, maybe we could maneuver the Hubble into a moon orbit. Either way the view would be unobstructed by the earth’s atmosphere.

[Seruzawa]

Another few dump trucks full of flaming grant money, please.

[one guy in new jersey]

But you can’t see the north star from there. :-(

[SpaceBar]

Maybe space is the wrong place to look for what we need as a species. Just sayin’.

[angmo]

Give me a couple of billion dollars and I’ll build it.

[Migraine]

So that ozone hole is good for something after all?

[43north]

I used to star gaze in Soldotna, Alaska during the winter months. I was out one night when the temp was -25*F. It was hard to keep the optics from icing up. After about an hour the contrast in the southern sky where I was observing got really poor. I turned around to grab something and the entire north sky was lit up green with Aurora. So much for that session. Funny, I never tried observing when it was that cold again...

[Phlap]

Looking through a ground based telescope is a waste of resources. But I’m no scientist nor do I play one on TV so take what I say with a grain of salt.

[SES1066]

Practical only with maximum automation as any 'observer' would unable to maintain concentration for any real practical amount of time. [smile]

For those talking about orbital telescopes, look at how long it is taking for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), in development since 1996 with an initial launch goal of 2007. As of this month (July 2020) the new launch date is set for 31 October 2021 and the development costs have gone from $0.5 Billion to $ 9.7 Billion. The JWST will not be serviceable because it will be at the Lagrange point #2, a gravity-balanced point located 1.5 million kilometers / 930k miles anti-sol from Earth.

Even an Antarctic-based site will be much easier to maintain and upgrade over the years once the initial construction has been done. The JWST is given a median 10 year life span for operation by contrast.