Two Canadian amateur stargazers will trade in their backyard telescopes for one 820 kilometres up in space.

Dozens of proposals poured in over the last year after the scientists in charge of the Microvariability and Oscillations of STars (MOST) space mission asked Canadian amateur astronomers and students what they would do if they had access to their space telescope.

David Gamey of Toronto and Gordon Sarty of Saskatoon have been chosen to tune into the vibrations of their favorite stars using the "little space telescope that could."

"It's like a cosmic version of the Olympics," says University of British Columbia astrophysics professor and MOST Mission Scientist Jaymie Matthews, calling the competition "MOST = My Own Space Telescope."

"Ordinary Canadians have proven themselves to be gold medalists reaching a podium which rises to the stars," says Matthews. "The many excellent proposals we received are worthy of our own Olympic slogan 'One Universe, Many Dreams.'"

Gamey, an amateur astronomer who teaches Cubs and Scouts, chose Betelgeuse as his MOST target. One of the brightest stars in Canada's winter night sky, the red supergiant is in the shoulder of the constellation Orion the Hunter and about 800 times bigger than the Sun.

"Kids are fascinated by this bright star, asking me questions like: When will it explode? Will our Sun turn into a supergiant like Betelgeuse?" says Gamey.

"They are like my collaborators on this proposal because Betelgeuse means so much to them. MOST will be the perfect bridge between these curious youngsters and some of the world's top scientists."

Sarty, a member of the Saskatoon Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC), chose a microquasar named LS 5039 as his target. A microquasar is a miniature version of the black holes at the cores of distant galaxies. In LS 5039, a star is locked in an orbit with a black hole, into which gas is plummeting and emitting "death cries" in the form of gamma rays.

"My five-year-old daughter Darien gave me a hug when I told her the news that I'd been selected," says Sarty, an expert on brain activity and MRI at the University of Saskatchewan.

"I've been observing variable stars for almost 20 years using a homemade telescope and my eyeball," says Sarty. "It feels like a step up - way up - to observe a microquasar with Canada's space telescope."

The door remains open for other aspiring skygazers to submit ideas for the MOST space telescope.

Background: The winning proposals
David Gamey: Betelgeuse With a life span less than a hundredth that of the Sun, Betelgeuse (pronounced "beetle-juice") is near the end of its life. David Gamey's proposal is for MOST to look for vibrations in Betelgeuse that can tell astronomers its true mass and age

Gamey will also work with the MOST scientific team to check for spots on the surface of the star.

It's the stellar equivalent of acne," says MOST Mission Scientist Jaymie Matthews. "Or maybe in this case I should say liver spots, since we'll be conducting a medical examination of a star in its senior years, before it dies in a spectacular supernova explosion."

Gordon Sarty: LS 5039 Gordon Sarty suggested that MOST look for the subtle dimming of light as knots of gas pass in front of the LS 5039 star en route to oblivion.

MOST data will enable scientists to use LS 5039 as a cosmic laboratory to study how gas is transferred from an ordinary star to a black hole, and how the star's magnetic field affects that escaping gas, teaching us lessons about our own Sun and its solar wind. The lessons extend even farther in space and time.

"Understanding LS 5039 may give us insights into how the very first galaxies were born soon after the Big Bang," says Matthews.

Honorable Mention: Jocelyn Larouche Jocelyn Larouche of Jonquiere, QC, proposed that MOST monitor a star located in front of a rich star-forming nebula, a cloud of gas and dust where stars are being born.

His proposal to search for planets around this star would be a long shot - "astronomical odds, so to speak," says Matthews.

"This star may be an intriguing target for future space missions, and Jocelyn deserves recognition for his insight and imagination."

MOST
MOST (Microvariability and Oscillations of STars) is a Canadian Space Agency mission. Originally designed to operate for 12 months, the suitcase-sized space telescope celebrated its fifth anniversary in June.

MOST was designed to measure the brightness variations of stars, a process which has been likened to "taking the pulse" of distant stars. It has expanded its role to study planets around other stars, including the search for "exo-Earths" - alien counterparts to our own home world.

The $10-million price tag of MOST is significantly lower compared to other space telescopes, earning it the nickname "Humble Space Telescope. The scientific output of MOST, however, is anything but humble. More than 20 scientific papers have been published by the MOST team in the past 18 months alone, and more were published by international scientists using data made available by MOST.

NASA recently signed an agreement with Canadian Space Agency and the MOST team to be able to use up to two months observation time between February 2009 and January 2010.

MOST is jointly operated by Dynacon Inc., the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies and the University of British Columbia, with the assistance of the University of Vienna.