AD Stories: Mario Jurić’s Childhood Telescope

AD Stories is back! Today were putting the spotlight on Mario Jurić, professor of astronomy at the University of Washington. Mario also had a story to share, about how a childhood summer astronomy class and their discovery of asteroids set the path for the rest of his life.

Mario Jurić

“It’s not just the physical artefacts that made the difference. I’ve personally witnessed how the act of searching for asteroids, learning how to do it, putting together the machinery, and making it all work has drawn dozens and dozens kids into astronomy and created friendships that have been lasting for decades. It got those kids excited about science, and showed that even in a world where everything seems to have been discovered (and all that’s left is to ‘consume’ it), there are still unknowns out there and it’s still possible to make a difference.

Even in a world where everything seems to have been discovered, there are still unknowns out there and it’s still possible to make a difference.

“I love this photo, from 1993. Those are a bunch of middle & high school kids in (then war-torn) Croatia, who have just built themselves a 40cm telescope (starting from a glass blank!) at a summer school of astronomy in a tiny village called Višnjan. This telescope went on to have an ST4 CCD mounted to it (192 x 164 pixels!; ST6 and AP8 came later on), was automated by those same kids (using stepper motors scavenged from discarded line printers, IIRC), attached to a 286 PC (we upgraded to a 486 eventually), had a slew of image processing and database software written for it (I didn’t get much sleep in high school!), and went on to discover over a thousand asteroids, an NEO, and two comets. With all of it done on a shoestring budget, by high school kids (who later grew up to be undergraduates), motivated by a phenomenal teacher. These kids went on to be engineers, researchers, and professors at Harvard, MIT, UW, EPFL, JPL, RedHat, etc. And it all started with looking for rocks in the sky.

“I’m the tall nerd in the yellow t-shirt in the back row of that picture. If it wasn’t for asteroids, the amateurs hunting them, and awesome educators like Korado Korlević who ran these schools and could inspire kids to believe they can make a difference, I wouldn’t be doing astronomy and building the LSST right now.

It’s one of those areas of science where amateurs and kids with good ideas can still make a difference.

“That’s why this field is awesome (beyond figuring out the history of the solar system, earning billions on mining, and occasionally saving the Earth). It can inspire people, and make discovery seem possible. It’s one of those areas of science where amateurs and kids with good ideas can still make a difference. Even in the age of machines like NEOCam or LSST, I think this will still hold true (we’ve barely scratched the surface when it comes to algorithms/software!).”

(Image: Mario Jurić and his fellow Višnjan astronomy classmates with their homemade 40cm telescope)

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Read Mark Boslough’s story here.

Read Rusty Schweickart’s story here.

Read Patrick Michel’s story here.

Read Alan Fitzsimmons’s story here.

Read Sabinije von Gaffke’s story here.