Putting Your Contributions to Work!

Previous Contributions

  • MLOA has raised money for design work for the 100-inch telescope.
  • Contributions from the MLOA purchased new beds and linens for the student dormatory rooms at the Observatory so that students can get a good morning's sleep after observing all night prior to driving back to campus.
  • Contributions from the MLOA purchased new accessories for the Observatory galley.
  • MLOA supplemented the generous donation by Reginald Buller, our first president, to install the 21-inch Buller Telescope for visitors.
  • MLOA helped equip and furnish the Harrington Visitor Center and Observatory Museum.
  • Your recent contributions have resulted in the purchase of a new computer for the Harrington Visitor Center Museum. This new PC replaced our current outdated machine and allows us to display images taken at MLO along with astronomically oriented demos and displays. This new PC also works with a recently acquired converter to project these displays and images through the big screen projector in the lecture hall.
  • The American Astronomical Society recently held its 192nd Annual Meeting here in San Diego.   SDSU hosted this meeting at the Town and Country Hotel.  The MLOA was one of the members of the Local Organizing Committee, and contributed the funds necessary to invite two guest speakers:  Dr. Geoffrey Burbidge from UCSD spoke on the Steady State Theory of Cosmology, and Marc Abrams, editor of the Annals of Improbable Research (AIR).   Both talks were entertaining and a great success!
  • Generous contributions by the MLOA has provided one third the cost of a new aluminizing chamber for the Observatory.  This new chamber will allow re-aluminization of all of the mirrors currently being used by the four telescopes at the Observatory.  Previously, the telescope mirrors had to be shipped out of state to be re-aluminized at great cost and risk of damage.  Now, thanks to the contributions by the MLOA and its members, re-aluminizing can be done here at Mount Laguna Observatory.   Click here to view the chamber.

Current Projects

  • The Board of Advisors approved the establishment of an annual $500 scholarship for sophomore astronomy majors.  Students receiving the scholarship will be selected primarily on the basis of academic performance in their freshman year.   It is hoped that the new scholarship will help and encourage lower division students through the very rigorous first years of astronomy, physics, and calculus classes.