Join us to learn about how the instrumentation for a telescope is designed and built from Carnegie Observatories staff scientists Nick Konidaris and Gwen Rudie.
Understanding the cosmos depends on detailed observations, not direct experiments. This means that technological advancements are the key to improving astronomers’ knowledge of distant stars, galaxies, and other celestial objects. For more than a century, Carnegie has led the development of new telescopes and instruments to reveal the secrets of the universe. Konidaris and Rudie are part of a team that is spearheading a new instrumentation effort for the Magellan telescopes at our Las Campanas Observatory in Chile.
Konidaris earned a Ph.D. in astrophysics from UC Santa Cruz and went on to a position at Caltech and a job as an optical engineer at Planet Labs. Prior to joining Carnegie, he was director of product management at Kairos Aerospace. Rudie received a Ph.D. in astrophysics from Caltech and was a Carnegie-Princeton Fellow before being named a staff scientist at the Carnegie Observatories.
May 14, 2020
