Research

Collaborative Satellite Tracking Project Passes First Test at SSC’s Ground Station PlaneWave, along with Baader Planetarium and Andor, has been collaborating with SSC for the development of their satellite tracking ground station over the past year and a half. This development is part of SSC’s Space Situational Awareness (SSA) program which aims to contribute to […]

By Russell M. Genet Abstract Automated instrument sequencers were employed on solar eclipse expeditions in the late 1800s. However, it was not until the 1960s that Art Code and associates at Wisconsin used a PDP-8 minicomputer with 4 K of RAM to automate an 8-inch photometric telescope. It took reliable microcomputers to initiate the modern […]

The US DoD is testing a new S-band radar space fence at Kwajalein. It should find and track most new objects during their first pass, rather than needing days to months using hit-or-miss “pencil-beam” radars. This fence may find many objects down to 2-5 cm that were not found before. This may catalog ~20X more […]

Officially launching last June, the Student Space Telescope Network (or SSTN) is the brainchild of Ralph Emerson, PlaneWave Instruments’ Vice President of Sales & Marketing; Russell Genet, research scholar and resident at California Polytechnic State University; and PlaneWave Instruments advisor and co-founder of the fiber optic communication company Sierra Monolithics, David Rowe. Basically, PlaneWave partnered […]

The second annual Conference on Robotic Telescopes, Student Research and Education (RTSRE), held on Hawaii’s East Coast between July 23 and 25, brought a great gathering of astronomers, educators, students, and allied professionals to the storied Big Island, for a leaning experience showcasing the latest advances in this growing field.  Among the notable scholars in attendance […]

Contemporary investigation of the heavens is getting a boost from recent advances in the use of robotic telescope technology, an expert in the field observes. Russ Genet, a pioneer in the field, says the evolution of robotic telescopes has led to “radical new discoveries in astronomy”. Genet, who started out forty years ago, as a […]

A new array of three PlaneWave 1.0 meter telescopes is at the heart of a major new Lowell Observatory project, supported by a $3.26 million grant from the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). The Model PW-100 instruments will upgrade the Navy Precision Optical Interferometer (NPOI), located at the observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. Leading the project, which […]

[vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1533748929472{margin-right: 40px !important;margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]Above: Shelby and Eric setting up the PW-1000 A groundbreaking astronomy project is searching the heavens for Earth-like exoplanets, which spacefarers of the distant future may one day visit or colonize. The study, called MINERVA, for MINiature Exoplanet Radial Velocity Array, now in its second year, is based at […]