Las Cumbres Observatory 19th Anniversary Announced

Attention all space cowboys and star-trekking galaxy women! 

On Star Date 77800.4, Thursday, May 2, 5:30 – 7:30 pm, the Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO) is inviting the public to its 10-year anniversary celebration at its main headquarters in Goleta. The event commemorates ten years of operating their global telescope network.

This is a great opportunity to meet LCO Founder and one of America’s renowned engineers, Wayne Rosing. He has made multiple contributions to computing science with his work at Digital Equipment Corporation, Data General, and Apple Computer (the Apple Lisa project). Rosing was the Sun Microsystems Laboratories manager who, from ‘92 – ‘96, headed First Person; the spin-off responsible for developing the Java Platform. He was also CTO at Caere Corporation developing OmniPage, and was the Vice President of Engineering at Google from ’01– ‘05. Upon his retirement, he discovered his niche in engineering space studies by founding the Las Cumbres Observatory in 2005. Since then, he has devoted that work to building a network of telescopes and installing them in strategic locations worldwide to create the first global telescope network that is online 24/7 recording space events, storing the data, and supporting space researchers. Rosing attended UC Berkeley.

At the open house there will be demonstrations with the LCO astrophysicists’ team, and their postdoc team from UCSB. LCO scientists work on the NASA DART mission, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Chile, study black holes, and many other space missions in conjunction with NASA. The event will include tours of the LCO telescopes and facility, along with a taco truck, drinks, and anniversary cake. 

Having reported on the LCO for over five years, I was invited to sit with Rosing and LCO President & Observatory Director, Lisa Storrie-Lombardi PhD.Here are the highlights:

MJ. Let’s talk about the LCO…

Wayne Rosing [WR]. We’ve effectively been operating as a scientific institution for 10 years. LCO was founded April 2, 2005. The first nine years was the engineering to build the telescope network. Following that we improved upon the network and mostly used it for science and education. We are super excited about that and want to celebrate it.

I came up with the essential idea of a telescope network in 1983 while working at Apple. I had been closely working on the development of the internet, minicomputers, and astronomy. Bell Labs had developed the charge-coupled device in 1969-70, aka electronic cameras. I put that together – computers, telescopes, a program, and electronic cameras – you can put them around the world with the internet and be able to observe continuously through new kinds of science. 

In 2005, LCO built the telescopes, a software program to run the telescopes, and a program to schedule the telescopes. We spent $50 million to build the telescopes, placing them in both hemispheres, so essentially, we always have two to three telescopes observing in both hemispheres continuously. 

We developed new science programs and it benefits education also. This enables far more flexible observing programs compared to when researchers had to schedule telescope time well in advance and travel to the telescopes. The LCO scheduler determines when and where to make the observations, depending on the weather conditions, using “queue-scheduled observing.” 

We wanted the capability of following a space event around the world over longer periods of time or looking at the same star twice nightly for four months or observe a star or planet for eight continuous hours. To do that we needed the exact same telescopes so the results would be homogeneous. We designed a 1-meter telescope and built them here at LCO, designed the camera for them, and purchased compatible computer chips. We deployed them at six key locations around the world.

MJ. Where are the LCO telescopes?

WR. We have 27 telescopes installed at seven locations globally. We have three in Chile near the Rubin telescope, two in Australia and three in South Africa. Our southern ring is set up to follow discoveries from the Rubin Observatory. Right now, we have two telescopes in China to be installed in western Tibet to complete our network at all latitudes and longitudes globally at national observatories.

MJ. LCO can queue all the telescopes at any time and from an iPhone?

WR. Yes! We have the ability to virtually change our schedule to meet a space event that was observed and needs our network. For example, with the Gravitational Wave event observed in the U.S. and Italy in 2017, our LCO telescopes were immediately rescheduled to search for it, and we found the gravitational wave in very short order. We were the third observatory in the world to find it.

MJ. Who operates the LCO global telescopes?

WR. That’s the interesting thing. We decided to make the telescopes available on a merit-based application to scientists all over the world. Each of our host institutions which are national observatories, have a section of time on the LCO network. Our four LCO scientists use it for their key projects and scientists all over world can use it. The National Science Foundation funded LCO to provide time to U.S. scientists. 

We can gather a lot of data and scientists work on teams to analyze the data. 

MJ. What are the specs for someone to harness LCO data?

WR. Our data goes into an archive. If it’s a science team doing research who is contributing the data and want it to be proprietary for their research and publication, it is kept for that team only for a year. All non-proprietary data is also archived and available to the general public.

MJ. What is LCO’s position on working with Elon Musk?

Lisa Storrie-Lombardi [LS]. The astronomical community has put together organizational structures through the International Astronomical Union to represent themselves with satellite manufacturers, the National Science Foundation and other government entities involved in space development. Satellites are here to stay. We want to work with the satellite manufacturers, so they understand what the impact is of their satellites and mitigate the adverse impacts. Governmental agencies are working on guidelines and rules for engagement on this, because it affects the night sky for both science and the human race observing it.

MJ. Would you consider working with Starlink or a similar provider?

LS. Yes. The satellite constellations are not going away. Progress is being made and there is more to do. SpaceX has been very responsive in working to minimize the impact of their satellites’ astronomy. In South Africa we have frequent issues with internet infrastructure, so satellite internet would be helpful as a backup for our telescopes there. 

And for LCO going forward…?

WR. There’s a lot to look forward to. We are ready to follow up on the Rubin Observatory and other space surveys. This is the time where for the next ten years we reap the benefits of the investment LCO made for science doing science. The gravitational wave telescopes are getting into their second generation, and we are going to do multi-messenger astronomy. We are set up to respond – doing the science as opposed to building the equipment.

LS. It’s really a golden age of astronomy with the Rubin Observatory coming online in 2025, and the gravitational wave telescopes continuing to do upgrades. We at LCO are perfectly designed to follow-up discoveries from both and observe continuously because of the nature of our network. New science problems get solved because you have this tool we built. We are looking for institutions that want to partner with LCO to do new science and continue development of our software – enabling the community and education programs for the public, and for the support to keep our telescopes operating.

In closing, Rosing profoundly said, “My goal is to teach critical thinking. Scientists are critical thinkers; develop a hypothesis, gather data, and find out if the hypothesis is right or wrong. That is how you find out the truth in the world. Do not mindlessly accept what comes out of the technical portholes. That is the absolute critical thing.” 

411: https://lco.global
Event location: 6740 Cortona Dr. Ste. 102, Goleta, CA