Multiple mirror telescope interviews [videorecording] / 1989.

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Multiple mirror telescope interviews [videorecording] / 1989.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/80362506

Since 1979, completely new and radical designs for astronomical telescopes have emerged. The Multiple Mirror Telescope (MMT) was the prototype, both technically and institutionally, for the next generation of large telescopes. The MMT was the world's first large-scale multiple mirror telescope, which used the combined light of six 72-inch reflecting telescopes in a single altitude-azimuth mount. Computers controlled all pointing and tracking of the MMT's individual telescopes. The MMT was located at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory on Mt. Hopkins, Arizona. Development of this site was begun by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) in the late 1960s as the Mt. Hopkins Observatory, renamed the Whipple Observatory in 1981. The MMT was jointly developed and run by SAO and the University of Arizona (UA). This arrangement was the first of several university and observatory consortia that have attempted larger multiple mirror and segmented mirror designs. David DeVorkin, curator at the National Air and Space Museum (NASM), recorded six sessions with twelve participants to document this multi-institutional scientific program. The participants were Nathaniel Carleton, Frederic H. Chaffee, Craig Foltz, Carol Heller, Keith Hege, Thomas Hoffman, Aden Meinel, Michael Reed, Robert Shannon, Ray Weymann, Joseph T. Williams and Fred L. Whipple. DeVorkin was particularly interested in design and construction of the MMT; in. Its operation (with basic structural and optical design elements); in how astronomers use the telescope; and in the phenomena of "consortia". DeVorkin also visually documented the operation of the MMT, including a nighttime observing session, various artifacts and equipment, and the interaction of former colleagues during group discussions. Interviews took place between May 8 and 11, 1989, at the observatory, in a studio in Tucson, Arizona, and at Flandrau Planetarium of the University of Arizona.

7 videotapes (8.7 hr.), 6 transcripts (257 p.)

American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library

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SNAC Resource ID: 8243830

Related Entities

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DeVorkin, David H., 1944-....

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w65x2b2g (person)

Multiple Mirror Telescope Observatory

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Smithsonian Videohistory Program

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w67983c9 (corporateBody)

Professor of astrophysics, Harvard University, and astrophysicist, Smithsonian-Harvard Center for Astrophysics, was universally regarded for her revolutionary work on the large-scale structure of the universe. The discovery by Geller, John Huchra and Valerie de Lapparent of the bubble structure of galaxies was argubly among the most important work in the late twentieth century. From the description of Margaret J. Geller oral history interviews [videorecording] / 1989-1990. (Unknown)....

Whipple, Fred L. (Fred Lawrence), 1906-2004

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6nk3h38 (person)

Fred Lawrence Whipple was an astronomer, and was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1956. From the description of Correspondence, 1965-1975. (American Philosophical Society Library). WorldCat record id: 122579023 From the guide to the Fred Lawrence Whipple correspondence, 1965-1975, 1965-1975, (American Philosophical Society) Fred Lawrence Whipple (1906- ), an astronomer at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO), was noted for his research and...

Foltz, Craig Billig

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Meinel, Aden B.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w62v2ns0 (person)

Weymann, R. J. (Ray J.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w67w6mn6 (person)

Chaffee, Frederic H., 1941-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6qr565j (person)