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Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771

ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM

Monday, July 29, 2019 / 3:30 PM, Building 3 Auditorium

Photo of Jeff Hall

Jeff Hall

"From a Twinkle in Our Eye to Science Operations: Lowell Observatory’s Discovery Channel Telescope"

ABSTRACT -- In 2000, Lowell Observatory committed itself to building a 4-meter-class telescope – a central element of its strategic decision to maintain its position as a center of astronomical research. On July 21, 2012, we held our celebratory First Light Gala, and as of January 1, 2015 we completed commissioning and entered full science operations. Today, it is regularly praised by faculty from Lowell and from our institutional partners as one of the most efficient and effective 4-meter telescopes they have ever used.

In this talk, I will trace the history of the project, how it was funded, key design decisions, a few bumps in the road, the current instrument suite, and the overall story of how an independent, non-profit institution builds a $53M telescope more or less by itself. I will also cover the impact – operational, cultural, and financial – of adding a behemoth of an asset to the corporation and some lessons learned from doing so.

SPEAKER -- Jeffery Hall is Director of Lowell Observatory. He has a B.A. in physics from Johns Hopkins and a Ph.D. in astronomy and astrophysics from Penn State. He joined the staff at Lowell in 1992 as a postdoctoral research fellow, specializing in optical spectroscopy and the variations of the Sun and Sun-like stars.

His principal avocation is music; he is the substitute organist at Epiphany Episcopal Church in Flagstaff and former President of the Board of Directors of the Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra. He served as Senior Warden at Epiphany church and is a former member of the Governing Board of Northland Preparatory Academy.

Presently he serves as Chair of the Board of the Northern Arizona Leadership Alliance. He has worked extensively in Flagstaff and in Arizona on dark-sky preservation, and is presently the Chair of American Astronomical Society’s Committee on Light Pollution, Radio Interference, and Space Debris.


Engineering Colloquium home page: https://ecolloq.gsfc.nasa.gov