Telescope time without tears: a distributed approach to peer review

Abstract

The procedure for allocating time on telescopes is horribly onerous for those unfortunate astronomers who serve on the committees that administer the process; it is also in danger of complete collapse as the number of applications steadily increases. Here an alternative is presented, whereby the task is distributed around the astronomical community in such a way as to steer the outcome towards awarding this precious resource to those projects where there is a community consensus that the science is most exciting and innovative.