About Overview

The Fairborn Institute, founded in 2000, is a direct descendent of the Fairborn Observatory, which was founded in 1979. The Institute uses smaller telescopes to conduct scientific research with its permanent staff and a constant stream of undergraduate and high school students. It also pursues related telescope and instrumentation engineering developments. Emphasis is placed on the publication of all research, and many of the students who have participated in the Institute’s research have received scholarships thanks to their coauthored publications. Besides astronomical observations, the Institute explores cosmic evolution, the synthesis of physical, biological, and cultural evolution.

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The seven pioneering robotic telescopes at the Fairborn Observatory on Mt. Hopkins in southern Arizona in the late 1980s. The Fairborn Observatory was the predecessor to the Fairborn Institute.

Seminar students operating the 2.1-meter telescope from its warm room at Kitt Peak National Observatory during one of two week-long runs featuring multiple student teams.

Students at the summer Astronomy Research Seminar at Pine Mountain Observatory. The dome for a Boller & Chivens 24” telescope is in the background.

The first Astronomy Research Seminar, 2001. The seminars have now produced over 200 papers with some 700 student coauthors.

Fairborn Institute operations have been shifted to Hawaii every winter for the past 14 years. Many double star observations have been made with students at the Leeward College observatory located within yards of Pearl Harbor.

Leeward College and local high school students pose with the college’s 20-inch telescope and speckle interferometry camera use for observing close double stars.

Double star observing team from Waipahu High School in Peral City. They finished their first two years of college while attending their last two years of high school. Being published researchers helped them obtain scholarships to complete their college education.