[FPSPACE] Planetary Society Opens Earth's First Dedicated Optical SETI Telescope

[LARRY KLAES]

Planetary Society Opens World's First Dedicated Optical SETI Telescope

New Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Begins

Pasadena, CA, —Today, April 11, 2006, The Planetary Society dedicated a new 
optical telescope at an observatory in Harvard, Massachusetts -- one 
designed solely to search for light signals from alien civilizations. Read 
more.

Opening ceremonies for The Planetary Society's Optical SETI Telescope 
featured Project Director Paul Horowitz of Harvard University; Planetary 
Society Chairman Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of New York's Hayden 
Planetarium; and Society Executive Director Louis Friedman.

"With the launch of The Planetary Society's Optical SETI Telescope," said 
Friedman, "we are proud to be part of a new voyage of discovery with this 
great Harvard team."

The new telescope is the first dedicated optical SETI telescope in the 
world. Its 72-inch primary mirror is larger than that of any optical 
telescope in the U.S. east of the Mississippi River.

Under the direction of Horowitz and his team, the optical SETI telescope 
will conduct a year round, all-sky survey, scanning the entire swath of our 
Milky Way galaxy visible in the northern hemisphere.

Full article here:

http://planetary.org/about/press/releases/2006/0411_Planetary_Society_Opens_Worlds_First.html


Looking for alien lasers, not radios

NewScientist.com news service April 11, 2006

*************************

The first optical telescope
dedicated to the hunt for alien
signals, the Planetary Society's
Optical SETI (OSETI) telescope at
Harvard's Oak Ridge Observatory, has
opened. Once running, OSETI's
processors will carry out a trillion
measurements per second, in a
year-round survey of the sky. It
will be able to pick out flashes of
light that are...

http://www.kurzweilai.net/email/newsRedirect.html?newsID=5458&m=7610


Harvard's new telescope to boost search for alien life

Will scan heavens for flashes of light

By Douglas Belkin, Globe Staff | April 12, 2006

To quote:

Horowitz compared the previous generation of the Optical Search for 
Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence, or OSETI, to searching the skies through a 
soda straw -- viewing only a very narrow spot of the heavens at once. This 
telescope, built for about $400,000, scans a broad line in the sky.

As the Earth moves, the stars pass through that line. In about 200 nights 
the scope can observe the entire sky visible from the northern hemisphere.

The pace of observation: 100,000 times faster than any previous scope.

To analyze the massive amount of data being sucked in through the scope's 
72-inch mirror, a team of graduate and undergraduate students built a 
computer able to wade through 1 trillion bits of information per second -- 
about as much information as is contained in every book in the Library of 
Congress.

''The technology is absolutely on the cutting edge," said Louis Friedman, 
executive director of the Planetary Society, a nonprofit group of scientists 
and space enthusiasts that funded the telescope. ''It feels like the Wright 
brothers working out of their bike shop; they're using chips never seen 
before."

Friedman compared building the scope to launching a space ship. The stakes, 
he said, could not be higher.

Full article here:

http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2006/04/12/harvards_new_telescope_to_boost_search_for_alien_life/