Sky-exploring Mission

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31275, 23 January 1967, Page 17

Sky-exploring Mission

Stephen D. Price, a member of the technical staff at the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation’s Federal Laboratories-Aerospace, San Fernando, has been assigned to the Mount John Observatory for a year to map a portion of the sky in the southern hemisphere, with the objective of determining the amount of infra-red radiation emitted by the bright infrared stars.

The survey, employing infra-red detection techniques, will be made on behalf of 1.T.T.F.L.-Aerospace for the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories under contract to the Electronic Systems Division, Air Force Systems Command, in Bedford, Massachusetts. “There has never been a survey of the southern sky in the infra-red region,” Mr Price said. “Studies have been limited and little work done in the field because observatories are few and far between in the southern hemisphere. The primary objective of this programme will be to locate stars which have high infrared rediation output and measure the amount of radiation.”

The survey will be made with a radiometer recently dismantled from the roof of 1.T.T.F.L.-Aerospace in San Fernando and shipped to New Zealand. The radiometer, an infra-red-detecting device, can perceive radiation which cannot be seen by the human eye. After supervising the installation of the instrument at the Mount John University Observatory in New Zealand, Mr Price anticipates working 10 or 11 months at night on his sky-exploring mission. Readings taken by the radiometer will be recorded on paper; the astronomer expects to conduct preliminary analyses of the data on a daily basis as the survey proceeds. The initial data reduction will be following by exhustive studies of the survey material. Mr Price and his wife, will live in Christchurch as Mrs Price is doing graduate work at Lincoln College. Mr Price will commute as necessary between Christchurch and the mountaintop observatory, which is jointly conducted by the University of Canterbury and America’s University of Pennsylvania. Mr Price graduated bachelor of arts in astronomy and

physics from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1963, and this year was awarded a master of science degree in astronomy by the Ohio State University. As a graduate student, he was employed by I.T.T.F.L. during summer vacation periods and became a full time employee in 1964. He subsequently was responsible for co-ordinating the original installation of I.T.T.F.L.’s radio-meter at 1.T.T.F.L.Aerospace, where the instrument was used by scientists to survey part of the northern hemisphere The photograph shows Mr Price alongside a dome at the Mount John University Observatory, Lake Tekapo. He is installing the instrumental equipment for his infrared radiation survey. This comprises a Kanigencoated, all-aluminium mirror 24in in diameter, and a detector package.