Development Overview

The Fairborn Institute, since its inception, has been involved in developing increasingly capable telescopes, instrumentation, and software. The “Cal Poly 18,” designed and built by Institute staff members and undergraduate students at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly), pioneered the use of direct-drives in smaller telescopes that led to the development of the PlaneWave Instruments 0.7- and 1.0-meter production telescopes. Current developments include full automation of speckle interferometry, use of aperture masks for discovering faint secondary stars, and encouraging the formation of fleets of infrared and ultraviolet CubeSat space telescopes in the coming decade.

California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) students and Fairborn Institute staff designed and built the pioneering Cal Poly 18 alt-az telescope with direct drive.

The Cal Poly 18 inspired the PlaneWave Instruments direct-drive alt-az telescopes. A PWI 1.0-meter telescope is being equipped for speckle interferometry observations of close double stars from Chile.

A rotating aperture masks can shunt the light of a bright primary star off in specific directions, providing dark “discovery areas” where fainter than usual secondary stars can be seen.

Fairborn Institute staff and students are working on the conceptual development of fleets of infrared and ultraviolet CubeSats telescopes that would be operated by students in the late 2020s.

The Fairborn Institute has supported and helped organize the annual meetings of the Alt-Az Initiative which is dedicated to advancing the development of modest-aperture research telescopes. One of the first meetings was held at California Polytechnic State University, just a few miles from the Fairborn Institute.

Dan Gray (Sidereal Technology, left) and Russ Genet (Fairborn Institute, right), stand under the Subaru 8-m telescope with the Subaru engineers during a visit to Mauna Kea that investigated how large-telescope features, such as direct drive, could be transferred to smaller telescopes.

Roger Angel, Russ Genet, and Dave Rowe discuss the potential for making lightweight mirrors for smaller (1- and 2-m class) low-cost production telescopes.

California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) mechanical engineering student Luke Williams generated the Solid Works drawings for the Fairborn Institute’s new robotic telescope mount.

Cal Poly mechanical engineering student, Cameron Bellers, machined the parts for the Institute’s mount at Cal Poly’s Mustang 60 machine shop. Cameron is now working for Space-X.

Final adjustments and assembly of the Institute’s new telescope were made in the Institute’s modest shop in Santa Margarita, California.