And, astronomers observe the skies from warm control rooms or even their own offices. Pioneering this transformation is a band of engineers and technicians at UCSC, ensconced within nondescript warehouses behind the campus's power plant. We have that team here. Most visitors are stunned to find world-class astronomy labs amid UCSC's redwoods. The long road to a finished instrument begins with a vision from one of UCSC's leading astronomers.
Engineers work with the faculty to draw up detailed plans.
Then, teams of specialists work on the guts of the device. These programs run the instruments and, in some cases, allow them to diagnose their own problems. They take pride in their work and in the scientific results. Such work has kept venerable Lick Observatory at the forefront of the field since its founding near San Jose in 1888. Another key instrument, the Kast Double Spectrograph, lets scientists examine faint galaxies through the increasingly light-polluted skies above San Jose.