Astronomical Telescopes and Observatories



One of my principle interests in optics is astronomical instruments and how to make the perform better. I have worked primarily with the 60-inch and 100-inch telescopes at the Mount Wilson Observatory and the Mount Laguna 1-m telescope, both sites being located in California. While at these observatories I also worked with a number of smaller telescopes, often classified as amateur astronomy telescopes and gained much of my facility with these instruments through my involvement with the Telescopes in Education program and the International Amateur-Professional Photoelectric Photometry Group and the Society for Astronomical Science.

The drive of much of this work was as part of the work at the Mount Wilson Observatory to develop a laser guide star adaptive optics system that was pioneered by Laird Thompson of UIUC.

Some of this work is listed here:

MWO Sky Brightness (2000)