How do professional astronomers come up with research projects to conduct with observatories?

Question

blues · Answer

Astronomy projects tend to require incredibly expensive equipment - so budget constraints are the typical limiting factor. And the ability to integrate as many projects as possible into one juggernaut are a guiding concern. These days that increasingly means international collaboration, so the various legal constraints and requirements posed by everyone's different government are important too.

There was a News and Views article about this in Nature a few weeks ago.

These days it is pretty much true of all scientists that we are given a check and have to figure out which work is possible under that constraint and, of those possibilities, which will be of most immediate and practical benefit to society and further work - and do it.