build very large optical interometric telescopes, put the in geosycrenous orbit or L², and point them at various gravitational lenses in the universe till something interesting shows up, like the well lit event horison of a black hole surrounded by bright stars. given starships load carrying capacity, previos mass restrictions, are gone, with cost guaranteed to be dramaticaly less, and time frames that will get public interest, plus the same instrument can be used to image exoplanets surface's at high resolutions et say cheese