My Father-in-law Bob visited and I gave him the grand tour of Lowell’s Telescopes. Here are a few shots of the two of us and some of Lowell Observatory’s telescopes.

The Discovery Channel Telescope (DCT) perching on its ridge in Happy Jack, Arizona. This is “my” telescope.

Bob standing in front of the DCT.

Bob standing inside of the DCT dome.  The black machine next to him is a man-lift that will be used for maintenance when the telescope is in operation.  The telescope is not here yet, but the building and the dome are completed. The dome weighs 330,000 pounds; the telescope will weigh a little more.

The electronics that spin the dome. Among other things, I’m working on the firmware that controls this system. The four motors use 480 volts, but can be controlled very precisely.

The Perkins Telescope.

Dr. Dierdre Hunter and Predoctoral Fellow Hongxin Zhang were using the Perkins that night, but were kind enough to let us fool around taking pictures. They are studying dwarf galaxies in an effort to learn more about star formation.

The John Hall Telescope.

The dome of the John Hall telescope in the moonlight.