FORT DAVIS — McDonald Observatory held their semi-annual University of Texas at Austin Astronomy Program’s Board of Visitors meeting over the weekend with more than 400 participants from the funding, agency and astronomy communities. A significant event among science talks, telescope tours and social mixers and meals at the conference was the dedication of the Alan Y. Chow Telescope at the observatory’s Frank N. Bash Visitors Center.
Dr. Alan Chow donated the 24” inch f/8 Ritchey-Chretien telescope and Las Cumbres Observatory refurbished and integrated the telescope into its global robotic system. The system which consists of remote and robotic control, a modified Ash-Dome enclosure, and a web-enabled network scheduling interface allows the telescope to be used with an eyepiece by Visitors Center Star Party participants, and when not in manual mode, by students and astronomers anywhere in the world.
Dr. Chow is a general ophthalmologist and a specialist in eye mis-alignments (strabismus) for both children and adults. Dr. Chow also specializes in the research of treatments for degenerative retinal diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa and has spearheaded multi-university research in this area. He is the inventor of the Artificial Silicon Retina, and the founder of Optobionics, which has returned a level of vision to blinded patients.
But Dr. Chow is also a long-time avid astronomer who launched a project to build his own telescope over thirty years ago. Starting out in an era of photographic plates, Dr. Chow smelted and poured his own mount components and slumped and ground his own mirror. Because the project was an avocation, it moved at a pace slower than the technology. As the digital age eclipsed him, he reconfigured the telescope multiple times, eventually selecting an Ed Byers German Equatorial mount, and an RC Optical Systems optical assembly with a 24” inch primary mirror.
When it came to operating the telescope, Ed Byers recommended Dr. Chow contact Wayne Rosing of Las Cumbres Observatory. Rosing had long years of experience in writing robotic telescope operating systems, and in configuring them for use at a variety of environmentally challenging observatory sites.
A Dark Place
Once the reconfiguration of the telescope was underway, Dr. Chow who resides in Chicago, asked Rosing if there was a location where his telescope could be placed where he could use it on occasion, but where serious students of astronomy would also have access. Las Cumbres Observatory had just installed its first 1-meter (of 9 to date at four locations around the world) at McDonald Observatory.
“McDonald Observatory,” explained Rosing, “is far and away the best public outreach program I’m aware for astronomy. Over 60,000 visitors a year come to their programs. They do a fantastic job of introducing the public to a very complex field of inquiry and study.”
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Wayne Rosing, left, describes telescope operation to Dr. Chow, center, and Calvin Chow during the dedication.
McDonald Observatory, for their part, were glad to host the telescope. It is the largest aperture telescope among the more than ten telescopes available to the public, and the only robotic telescope. McDonald Observatory did the site engineering and ran the cabling into the Rebecca Gale Telescope Park behind the Frank N. Bash Visitors Center. Las Cumbres Observatory completed the dome and telescope installations over the last several months.
The dedication took place on the evening of July 27. Rather than break a bottle of champagne over the telescope, the ceremony included the stomping of jalapeno peppers. A tradition started several years ago by Bill Wren of McDonald, the pepper stomping attracted adults and children, and Dr. Chow, who attended the ceremonies also stomped a chile.
In addition to Dr. Chow and Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope, other major supporters of this project include Wayne Rosing and Dorothy Largay, the estate of Leopold Tedesco, and the Frank & Susan Bash Endowed Chair for the Director of the McDonald Observatory.
A Global Telescope
LCOGT is a private, nonprofit science institute engaged in time domain astrophysics, formed in 2005. LCOGT under the direction of Todd Boroson publishes extensively on exoplanets, supernovae, gamma ray bursts and minor planet research, among other research areas. The organization operates the two 2-meter Faulkes Telescopes for which initial capital and operational funding was provided by The Dill Faulkes Educational Trust. LCOGT is now in the process of deploying a global network of 1-meter telescopes.
Established in 1932, The University of Texas at Austin McDonald Observatory near Fort Davis, Texas, hosts multiple telescopes undertaking a wide range of astronomical research under the darkest night skies of any professional observatory in the continental United States. McDonald is home to the consortium-run Hobby-Eberly Telescope, one of the world's largest. An internationally known leader in astronomy education and outreach, McDonald Observatory is also pioneering the next generation of astronomical research as a founding partner of the Giant Magellan Telescope and as host to a node of the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope.
