Tag archives: Las Cumbres Observatory

Heising-Simons Foundation Awards Grant to LCO
By Montecito Journal   |   August 20, 2024

The grant funds open access to the Las Cumbres Observatory telescope network for the entire astronomical community over the next four years, covering eight six-month observing semesters. This significantly supports all current and future astronomy discovery surveys.  LCO is accessible to all institutions that host astronomers, regardless of size or resource level. LCO will be […]

Tim Lister Awarded NASA Grant for the ESA’s Hera Mission
By Joanne A Calitri   |   July 30, 2024

Tim Lister PhD, Senior Scientist at the Las Cumbres Observatory, Goleta, has been awarded a grant from NASA to join the European Space Agency’s Hera Mission, as one of 12 U.S. participating scientists.  On September 26, 2022, the world’s first planetary defense test mission was carried out by NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART). In […]

Las Cumbres Observatory 19th Anniversary Announced
By Joanne A Calitri   |   April 30, 2024

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 […]

The December Astro on Tap by Las Cumbres Observatory
By Joanne A Calitri   |   December 26, 2023

On Thursday, December 14, the Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO) team held its “Astronomy on Tap” meeting at M. Special on State Street. These events are an all ages and pet friendly info session on current astronomy science and news. The LCO team has raffle tickets that support the event with winners getting the coveted LCO […]

LCO’s Astro on Tap Anniversary & Fund for Maui
By Joanne A Calitri   |   September 5, 2023

The Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO) celebrated its one-year anniversary of “Astronomy on Tap” at the M. Special Brewing Company State Street taproom, on August 24. The back patio bar was packed with scientists, astronomers, students, and budding Jedi Knights in training, some with their pets, gathered to hear the presentations by Senior Astro-data Scientist Curtis […]

Senior Scientist Tim Lister PhD Has Minor Planet Named After Him
By Joanne A Calitri   |   July 25, 2023

At the 14th Asteroids, Comets, Meteors Conferenceon June 18-23 held in Flagstaff, Arizona, astrophysics scientist Tim Lister PhD, who works at the Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO) in Goleta, was awarded for his life’s work in the field with the naming of an asteroid, also known as a minor planet, after him. The meeting, of which […]

A Comet Occurrence 50,000 Years in the Making
By Joanne A Calitri   |   February 7, 2023

Get your popcorn and astronaut ice cream ready for some rare astral entertainment. The famous Comet C/2022 E3 ZTF – at its peak February 1 and 2 – can be viewed at NNE, 23 to 40 degrees above the horizon, from 9 pm to sunrise, with amateur telescopes and possibly your 10x binoculars. The significance […]

Astronomy on Tap Is On!
By Joanne A Calitri   |   September 13, 2022

Tune in you star trekkers, gazers, and galaxy aficionados, Las Cumbres Observatory’s (LCO) Astronomy on Tap is back on the planet every month in a new location: the outside patio at M Special Taproom on State Street. The new venue allows for the Astro on Tap monthlies to be an all-ages event, while still be […]

Our Solar System: The Leftovers
By Tom Farr   |   March 25, 2021

We all learned in school that there are eight planets (well, nine if you’re as old as I am), but our solar system is messier than that. There are millions of leftover rocks called asteroids; bits of ice and rock that come and go called comets; and objects out there beyond Neptune called, in dry […]

Arts Lockdown Series Part 4: From Space with Astrophysicist Andy Howell, PhD
By Joanne A Calitri   |   August 27, 2020

Transporting us from science to sci-fi films is astrophysicist Andy Howell, PhD. He is a staff scientist at Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO), where a global network of 23 telescopes operate 24/7. His team co-discovered the first “kiloanova” in 2017, two neutron stars that rotate around each other and release gravitational waves, merging to create a […]

Black Holes and Dark Matter News
By Joanne A Calitri   |   April 18, 2019

On April 10, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) scientists historically released the first image of a black hole they have taken using observations of the center of the galaxy M87, a massive galaxy in the constellation of Virgo. This black hole is located 55 million light-years from Earth and has a mass 6.5-billion times larger […]