David Petry | 16 Jul 2010
After more than five years of redesign, engineering, and commissioning, the 18” handicap-accessible Wren-MarcarioAccessible Telescope (WMAT) will be rededicated at the McDonald Observatory Frank N. Bash Visitor’s Center this Saturday, Jul
Edward Gomez | 23 Jun 2010
Last weekend I was part of the first UK Science Hack Day. Strangely it lasts a whole weekend, but the 'day' aspect refers to a 24 hour hack session. We were hosted by The Guardian newspaper in London (where many people also ended up sleeping there
Edward Gomez | 19 Dec 2009
Over the past year I have been working on a series of science video podcasts (or vodcasts), with Jon Yardley and Olivia Gomez. There are lots of vodcasts available in the world of science but I wanted to make some which were fun and accessibe but d
Edward Gomez | 18 Jun 2010
The observatory site we are affectionately calling BPL (back parking lot) is our on-site testing ground for the 1m and 0.4m projects. We have an enclosure for each; an aqawan for 0.4m and an Ash dome for our 1m. The first of our 1m network was recent
JD Armstrong | 13 Jun 2010
I Got A Candy Apple. I Got A Popcorn Ball. I Got A Rock.
JD Armstrong | 08 Jun 2010
Students from the Hawaiian islands havebeen attending the 2010 HI-STAR program at the University of Hawai`iat Mānoa.The program pairs students with researchers at the University ofHawai`i to work on research projects. Topics include “Young HotStars”
Edward Gomez | 04 Feb 2010
This comet appears to have undergone another massive outburst, this time on 2010 February 2 increasing in brightness by a factor of 30-40. The object is one of the largest active comets known. It follows a near-circular path about 6.2 AU from the S
Jessica Barton | 17 Apr 2010
Tonight at the Santa Barbara County Science fair, Daniel Godinez, Caylin Canales and Rishika Singh all won gold medals for their science fair projects and will be going to the state science fair next month!
Edward Gomez | 26 May 2010
For the past week Richard Miles (BAA) has been following an as-yet unidentified object orbiting the Sun (dubbed 2010 KQ), using Faulkes Telescope North. Recent observations suggest it is a man-made object with an exciting past.
Edward Gomez | 27 Jan 2010
We have been commissioning a new camera over the past few months, called Spectral (although it is an imaging camera not a spectrometer). One of our science interns (BJ Fulton) has been following an open cluster monitoring program and has been among
Edward Gomez | 28 May 2010
Last night, the 0.4m telescope in the back parking lot (BPL) produced the first fully 'sequenced' observation with the new control system. The sequencer is the layer of software which sits on top of all the low-level telescope, instrument, and enc
Edward Gomez | 22 Jan 2010
I rediscovered a tool that I had forgotten about this morning. A website called Wordle which can grab all the text from a website, rss feed or even a paragraph that you submit and graphically display the words in a semi-artistic way. Larger words rep
Edward Gomez | 12 Jan 2010
The development of our custom made enclosures for our 0.4m telescopes is continuing. The project is called Aqawan, which is the Chumash word for 'to be dry'. Have a look at my previous blog entry about the aqawan design.
LCO Webmaster | 02 Mar 2010
With half of the world’s population now living in cities, many urban dwellers have never experienced the wonderment of pristinely dark skies and maybe never will. This loss, caused by light pollution, is a concern on many fronts: safety, energy
Edward Gomez | 19 Mar 2010
The CoRoT satellite, operated by the French space agency CNES, has discovered a Jupiter- sized planet orbiting a star similar to the Sun in the constellation Serpens Cauda at a distance of 1500 light-years from the Earth. The parameters of this gas
LCO Webmaster | 29 Mar 2010
This year marks the fourth year that LCOGT has participated in the KITP's annual Teacher's Conference. Teachers from around the country all come to UCSB for this one day conference to meet with some of the world's leading experts in different areas
JD Armstrong | 31 Mar 2010
On March 11-13 LCOGT supported the second annual Astronomy and Heliophysics Workshop on Maui. The Workshop was held by LCOGT, and partner organizations: The Maui Economic Development Board, The National Solar Observatory, and the Institute for Astr
Edward Gomez | 13 Apr 2010
The discovery of nine new planets challenges the reigning theory of the formation of planets, according to new observations by astronomers, 2 of which for our own Dr Rachel Street and Dr Tim Lister .
LCO Webmaster | 04 Aug 2009
This week, I have been lucky enough to be asked to go out to the Haleakala site in Maui by LCOGT to help commission the telescopes. As an astrophysicist, I often analyze images from telescopes (mostly ones which work in the far-infrared range, includ
LCO Webmaster | 17 Dec 2009
This week, a number of scientists have gathered in Madrid to discuss the first science results from the Herschel Space Telescope. Herschel is the largest astronomical telescope ever put in space (the mirror is 3.5m wide!) and observes light at inf
Jacob Towsley | 18 Nov 2009
On 30 October Kurt Vander Horst and Jacob Towsley commissioned the new Wren Marcario Accessible Telescope (WMAT) telescope at McDonald Observatory in Texas. WMAT is a unique design for telescope which is accessible to people in a seated position,
Edward Gomez | 04 Nov 2009
Faulkes Telescope North has undergone a substantial refurbishment. The primary mirror has been removed using a portable gantry, and block and tackle. This is no mean undertaking as the mirror itself weighs over a ton, at 1240 Kg (2734 lbs). The mi
Edward Gomez | 16 Oct 2009
As part of Twitter Moonwatch we have been working with our UK education partner Faulkes Telescope Project and the International Year of Astronomy 2009 (UK national node), to bring a competition to win an hour observing on Faulkes Telescope South
JD Armstrong | 09 Oct 2009
Tonight We will attempt to image the LCROSS impact using the Faulkes Telescope North. Recently students at Kalama Intermediate on Maui created their own LCROSS event. Assisted by Dr. J. D. Armstrong, on Friday October 2nd students in the astrono
LCO Webmaster | 05 Oct 2009
October 3, 2009 was the first annual Science Day at the Santa Barbara Zoo. Many excited kids, parents, and teachers got to spend a sunny Saturday surrounded not only by hundreds of exciting and exotic animals, but by also learning about different