Patent ID: 8275883

Claim:
A method for selecting a telescope out of a plurality of telescopes, comprising: determining, using software instructions at a data processing facility that is remote from a user, from which one or more telescopes, out of the plurality of telescopes, a celestial object of interest is viewable; determining, using software instructions at the data processing facility, one or more times at which the celestial object is viewable on each of the one or more determined telescopes; accessing, at the remote data processing facility, at least one source of information relating to the one or more determined telescopes including a distance to the one or more determined telescopes when the celestial object of interest is at its zenith; and selecting, using the software instructions at the data processing facility and based at least on the shortest distance to the celestial object of interest at its zenith, a telescope out of the one or more determined telescopes and a time out of the one or more determined times at which the selected telescope can obtain an image of the celestial object.