Size doesn't matter, at least not in Astronomy. Ask astronomer Peter McCullough. Using a "homemade" telescope from commercially available parts, McCullough was able to do what other astronomers with bigger tools could not. He discovered a new planet, X0-1b, the size of Jupiter orbiting a sun-like star 600 light-years away.

"Of the planets that pass in front of their stars, XO-1b is the most similar to Jupiter yet known, and the star XO-1 is the most similar to our Sun," said McCullough, of the Space Telescope Science Institute. "But XO-1b is much, much closer to its star than Jupiter is to the Sun."

Actually, McCullough wasn't alone. He and his team of professional and amateur astronomers have been combing the skies using many telescopes made from relatively inexpensive equipment. The team built their XO prototype telescope, which looks like binoculars, from commercially available 200-millimeter telephoto camera lenses. Mounted on the summit of the Haleakala volcano in Hawaii, the XO prototype telescope cost about $60,000. It may sound expensive but it's a lot cheaper than the many millions of dollars needed to build typical professional observatories. It took McCullough's team three years sifting through tens of thousands of bright stars and culling a few dozen promising candidates. But finally they found X0-1b.

"It was a wonderful feeling because the team had worked for three years to find this one planet," McCullough said. "It's like trying to distill gold out of seawater."