Ralph Pass

Ralph Pass started in astronomy with the Mars Opposition of 1956. This incited an interest in Astronomy and Mathematics. He has a PhD in Mathematics, worked for NASA in the Apollo program and on early launch support for many unmanned missions, including ISEE-C, Voyager-1, and Voyager-2. During all the manned Apollo missions Dr. Pass provided support for the telemetry link between the spacecraft and Houston, provided command link support between Houston and the spacecraft, and provided tracking support of the spacecraft. He also was part of the team supporting I.I. Shapiro's use of the Apollo antennae for VLBI support. He provided tracking support for the first General Relativity space mission, Gravity-A. He provided Planetarium shows and star parties to the general public as part of public outreach of NASA.

He was a participant in the Small Telescope Science Program of the University of Maryland in support of the Deep Impact Mission. He also provided support to JPL for the Deep Space I flyby of Comet Borrelly. For each of these missions he provided comet imagery support using his Meade LX200 telescope and Meade Pictor CCD Imagers.

Dr. Pass' connection with Meade started in 1994 when he purchased an 8" LX200 classic. The following year he built a Cookbook Camera CCD and used it with the LX200, programming his own telescope and camera control software. In 1996 he purchased a Meade Pictor 416 CCD Camera. Since then he has acquired several Meade telescopes, including an RCX400 12" and several more imagers including a Meade Pictor 1616 CCD Camera, Meade Deep Sky Imager, and Meade Deep Sky Imager PRO II. He has used his Meade imagers on other telescopes including an OGS 20" RC. He has also used SBIG ST-7 and ST-10 imagers with his Meade telescopes.

Among his activities now are teaching Astronomy at Merrimack College and a continuing interest in astrophotography/astroimaging.