Keynote Address
Tuesday, November 5, 2024
7:15 PM – 8:30 PM
Dr. D. Scott Acton
Peddling a Telescope: Reflections on the Webb Telescope, and Cycling the World
The James Webb Space Telescope (Webb) is a segmented deployable telescope, currently operating ~ 1 million miles from Earth, at the second Lagrangian point. Since the first observations were released in the Summer of 2022, Webb has continued to produce visually stunning images. The analysis of these images is changing humanity’s understanding of the Universe; rewriting textbooks. Since Webb is a deployable segmented telescope, it had to be aligned after launch, via a “Wavefront Sensing and Controls” (WFSC) process heavily rooted in Image Analysis. Starting with positioning uncertainties on the order of a few millimeters, the alignment process correctly positioned Webb’s optics to within a handful of nanometers.
Dr. Acton will present an overview of the Webb telescope and its imagery obtained during the past year, and discuss the analysis techniques that enabled it to be aligned after launch. He will also share some of his adventures encountered while cycling around the world to promote the telescope.
Scott Acton was the Wavefront Sensing and Controls Scientist for JWST while working for Ball Aerospace. Previously, Acton worked in the field of Adaptive Optics for the W. M. Keck Observatory, and for the Lockheed Missiles and Space Co. He has recently accepted a position at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh. Acton studied Physics at Abilene Christian University, earned a PhD in Physics from Texas Tech, and served as a post-doc at the Kiepenheuer-Institut fuer Sonnenphysik in Germany. In 2016, Acton took a year off from his job to execute the “James Webb Space Telescope World Bicycle Tour.” He currently resides in Niwot, Colorado.