24 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY SEPTEMBER 11-17, 2025 www.montereycountynow.com “Really, we do astronomy because we want to know—because humans are curious,” Cotton says. “We’re the lucky people who get to do that on behalf of everyone, which is a reason why I think it’s very important we try to involve the public as much as possible in what we do. If you’re working on behalf of humanity, then you should involve humanity.” MIRA’s first public outreach event took place in 1973, drawing hundreds of people to view Comet Kohutek through an amateur telescope. This is the kind of telescope that you can pick up and move—no cranes required, no world-class 36-inch mirrors involved. And the idea of including non-scientists in the science of astronomy has remained essential to the work the nonprofit does in the 52 years since. That commitment takes the form of star watch parties (not unlike the Kohutek viewing party), lectures, internships and classroom engagement. “It’s easy to get interest, because space is a pretty science,” says astronomer Jean Perkins, who beyond doing her own research, is responsible for the nonprofit’s community outreach efforts. “The images are beautiful and inspiring, without having to understand all the physics,” she adds. “That makes it accessible.” Perkins knows firsthand the impact one inspiring leader can provide to a young person. “When I was a kid I really liked rocks—it was rocks, rocks, rocks all the time,” she says. Then one influential role model—a physics professor early on while she was attending community college—inspired Perkins to change course away from plans to pursue geology. Perkins’ research focus is asteroseismology, the study of starquakes (rather than earthquakes). Seismology on Earth has helped us understand the inside of our own planet—the same logic applies to stars, as Perkins looks for information in stellar pulsation that can reveal information about the age, size and the interior structure of stars. That information is collected with photometers from space-based satellites, and spectrographs from the Oliver Observing Station. While the latter detects light in grayscale, producing a monochrome spectrum, Perkins works with a team of interns to process that spectrum, mapping it to the colors your eye (not the sophisticated instrument) would see. When they adjust it, they can see different colors of light spreading out into a rainbow—after analysis, Perkins’ data readings look beautiful, like a series of rainbow lines transitioning from dark to bright red, then to orange, then yellow, and so on. Perkins and Cotton are two of nine astronomers and physicists on MIRA’s staff, each specializing in their own field of study. MIRA Assistant Astronomer Eric Haase recently presented on cometary dust at the American Astronomical Society’s conference in Washington, D.C. They deliberately under-schedule time on the telescope at Oliver Observing Station so they can respond quickly to celestial events. But much of the work, particularly in winter, when clouds obscure the sky and rainy weather makes Tassajara Road a rougher drive, takes place indoors, in Marina. The main MIRA campus on the former Fort Ord at the Richard W. Hamming Astronomy Center includes extensive scientific libraries, a machine shop and electronics shop, and a student observatory with a 14-inch telescope. (Somewhat ironically, this main campus is based at sea level in one of the foggiest places, compared to the perfect location of the observatory at 5,000 feet in the Los Padres National Forest.) All of these facilities and all of this research is funded by the nonprofit MIRA, supported by a Friends of MIRA group. (That group launched in 1978 at the home of an original Friends member, photographer Ansel Adams.) Perkins is optimistic about maintaining three federal grants from the National Science Foundation for research but worries about one from NASA for bilingual education, given the current climate in Washington. As of 2022, the organization reported $4.3 million in total assets—relatively small to be pursuing big questions of the universe. (The highest-value items are MIRA’s custom-made instruments, Perkins says.) “Astronomy is a hard one to justify especially when you are writing grants,” Perkins says. “They always ask you, ‘Why is what you are doing important?’ It’s not like we are curing cancer or solving world hunger. “But it scratches that itch humanity has to know where we came from, where we are going.” A big focus of Perkins’ work is community events, and she finds that astronomy connects her not just to the community, but humanity more broadMIRA is headquartered in Marina, where a team of nine astronomers (including Cotton, right) work most of the time, and equipment goes for storage and repairs. MIRA interns helped produce this series of images of comet C/2025 K1 (ATLAS) stacked together, where the comet is kept as the central focus. It shows star trails as the comet moves in relation to stars in the background. This comet was discovered in May 2025. DANIEL DREIFUSS DANIEL DREIFUSS COURTESY MIRA
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