All-Sky Search

The all-sky search makes no a priori assumptions about where communicating life might be found. Because the entire sky must be considered, small angle of view becomes a limiting factor. The amount of sky visible at one time determines how long it takes to search the entire sky. Therefore a larger number of smaller telescopes with larget angles of view is the optimal method for conducting an all-sky search. Additonally, smaller telescopes are cheaper so many more can be purchased with the same amount of money used to buy one larget telescope (e.g. for a targeted search). However, the lower sensitivity of smaller telescopes is still limiting. Weak signals that a targeted search could detect might be missed by an all-sky search.