All posts by Lauren Sgro

Ever wondered what it’s like to set up the LaserSETI instruments? Read our blog to learn more about our new observatory in Puerto Rico:https://www.seti.org/news/laserseti-expands-network-to-puerto-rico-growing-toward-allsky-coverage This article details our installation process at Isla Magueyes, home of the Department of Marine Science at UPR Mayagüez. Join us on our journey to expand the LaserSETI network!

Above: part of the LaserSETI team with volunteers from Sociedad de Astronomía del Caribe.

The recent installation of the fourth LaserSETI observatory on Isla Magueyes in Puerto Rico was a fantastic experience and we’ve been happy to report that it went smoothly! That is, thanks to the help of Dr. Abel Mendez, the Deparment of Marine Sciences (University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez), and the Astronomical Society of the Caribbean (Sociedad de Astronomía del Caribe), and the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez. Braving the heat is always part of the process, but the company and the incredible views kept us going. Check out this time lapse of the installation to see how it all went!

LaserSETI has officially landed in Puerto Rico! Watch our LaserSETI livestream from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez’s Department of Marine Sciences, where the new instruments are located! Outreach Manager Dr. Lauren Sgro was joined by Dr. Abel Méndez, Professor and Director of the Planetary Habitability Laboratory at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo, to talk about the installation and Méndez’s team’s new study on the Wow! Signal. Dr. Méndez helped immensely to make this new observatory a reality, and he will continue to monitor the stations in Puerto Rico with his students. Enjoy the show!

In a recent SETI Live, Outreach Manager Dr. Lauren Sgro spoke with Dr. Simon Steel and Beth Johnson about all the goings-on with LaserSETI! Dr. Steel detailed what it was like to go to the National History Museum in London, where LaserSETI is featured in the exhibit “Could Life Exist Beyond Earth?”. Dr. Sgro spoke on the installation of the Sedona observatory and gave updates on the installation of a new LaserSETI station in Puerto Rico. You can hear all about it in the livestream below, and read more on the SETI Institute blog: https://www.seti.org/news/laserseti-expands-new-station-in-puerto-rico-and-spotlight-in-london/

LaserSETI Sedona is officially in full working order! In honor of these instruments actively searching the skies, you can read about the host of our Sedona observatory — Richard Factor. This story details our exciting installation of these instruments, as well as a peek into Factor’s life and his efforts in the search. Read more at https://www.seti.org/searching-life-rooftops.

It’s official! There is a new LaserSETI observatory in town, specifically in Sedona, AZ. While the the installation was successful, we were unable to focus the instruments while in Sedona due to the cloudy Arizona skies. So, we will be returning in the coming months to complete this final step. With the addition of the two LaserSETI stations that comprise this observatory, our sky coverage will increase from approximately 18 to 30%. That’s one step closer to monitoring all the sky, all the time. Read more here: https://www.seti.org/new-laserseti-observatory-installed-sedona-az.

Exciting news for LaserSETI! Two new LaserSETI stations will be installed this weekend in Sedona, Arizona. Although the current installations in California and Hawai’i observe almost 20% of the sky at one time, that will go up dramatically with the new observatory. You can see here how the LaserSETI team has been hard at work getting ready for the install.

The team’s mascot, Stormy, obviously helping with the preparations.

Part of the team getting ready for the shipment to Sedona.

Preparing the new LaserSETI stations!