• Joined the Monterey Park Astronomical Society (MPAS) in 1975; officer or member of the board of the MPAS until it disappeared in 1985. I was the last president of the MPAS.
• Joined the Los Angeles Astronomical Society (LAAS) in 1985. Elected to the board of directors in December, 1986. President of the LAAS 1990-1992 & 1997-2002; Secretary 1993. Numerous awards for club education & service.
• Joined the Board of Trustees of the Mount Wilson Observatory Association (MWOA) in 1985; officer or member of the board of MWOA continuously since 1986. Vice President of MWOA 1993-1995, secretary 1996-2001. I am also a senior docent & tour guide for hosting tours at Mt. Wilson Observatory, a service provided to the observatory by MWOA.
• Joined the Radio Astronomy Group at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in January 1981, and remained in the group through 1992. See my research page for a synopsis of my professional experience in radio astronomy.

I have always had an interest in astronomy and science. However, as my brief resume shows, I have never been able to keep my nose out of things. I always want to know what the people I pay dues to are doing with that money, I always wind up going to board meetings to find out who they are, and I always wind up as a member of the board myself. It's like some unknown force of nature compels me to get involved. Actually, I like being part of the decison making process, I like to think I have an effect on how things are done, and what decisions are eventually made. So far I seem to have done a reasonably good job at it.

But, I don't just enjoy running astronomical organizations, I enjoy the practice, and history of astronomy. I do own my own telescope, an 80 millimeter Meade refractor (f12 I think, I can never remember), but I don't very often use it. I prefer to go to star parties and look through everybody elses telescopes; they're mostly bigger and better than mine anyway. I also like to use my Orion Ultra View binoculars, especially on the summer Milky Way.

Part of my excitement comes from dealing with the public, at public star parties, or by giving a talk, or by leading an observatory tour, or just showing the sky to somebody who has never looked at it before. Another part of my excitement comes from my own natural inquisitiveness. I am a physicist by education, and by predilection, and I enjoy astrophysics. I like to try to understand as best I can, what I see in the telescope. Despite the non-astronomers first impression, they really are not all just a lot of fuzzy blobs.

If you are reading this page, and you are not an astronomer, but you are thinking maybe astronomy might be interesting, go for it. Check the Sky & Telescope Astro Directory of clubs, planetaria, museums and observatories. Its coverage is world wide. That's where you will find the people who can get you started, by showing you the sky as you may never have seen it before. If all else fails, send me E-mail and we'll get you started.

• The Los Angeles Astronomical Society maintains an extensive list of astronomy related WWW resources. Of particular interest, especially to those of you in Southern California, where I am:
  Southern California Clubs, Observatories and Planetaria
  Observatories & Telescopes (on or above Earth)
  Magazines, Journals & other Publications

  The LAAS list covers just about everything you could ever want to find. But here are a few that I think deserve special attention, and that you might want to visit.

• Mt. Wilson Observatory - Perched atop the mountains overlooking Los Angeles (and visible from most of it on a non-smoggy day), Mount Wilson Observatory is arguably the most productive astronomical facility ever built. It was Mt. Wilson astronomer Edwin Hubble who discovered the idea of an expanding universe, and after whom the Hubble Space Telescope was named. The telescopes here were the largest in the world, from 1908 through 1948 (except for a few months). Observations made here radicallly altered our view of the universe, disclosed the true nature of galaxies, and discovered the star-spot cycles around other stars. Today, the observatory is at the fore-front of the new methods of adaptive/active optics, and is about to become the home of the World's largest optical interferometer (construction has already begun). The past and future meet at Mt. Wilson as they do nowhere else in the astronomical world.

• Griffith Observatory - Home for the Los Angeles Astronomical Society, and a landmark overlooking downtown Los Angeles. Their telescope is open most nights, and their planetarium shows are excellent. During the day the observatory plays host to hundreds of school children who come for the special planetarium shows designed just for them, and to tour the museum.

• The Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) - Part of the McDonald Observatory of the University of Texas at Austin. The primary mirror of the HET is 11 meters (433 inches; 36 feet 1 inch) across, which makes it the largest optical telescope mirror in the world. However, the telescope is built such that only 9.6 meters is ever used at any time. So, the 10 meter (394 inches; 32 feet 10 inches) primary mirrors of the telescopes at the W.M. Keck Observatory atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii, remain the largest effective aperatures in use today.

• The Jet Propulsion Laboratory - JPL is the NASA center tasked with managing and controlling all of the spacecraft missions to explore the solar system. Here you will find all manner of photographs, press releases, and other information, on all of the past, present, and future space missions. In light of the NASA commitment for a series of Mars exploration missions, the Mars Missions News & Information page is of special interest, and will keep you up to date on all the current Mars missions. JPL also hosts a series of Public Lectures in the JPL Von Karman Auditorium and on campus at Pasadena City College.

Back to Tim Thompson's Home Page