David Cope

Pleiades David Cope

One of my very first research studies in my early teens (1952) I decided to combine art and science in the design of a radio telescope to fit my parent's rooftop, gave indications of changes through sound output and input (a very large radio inherited from my relatives for SETI) and looked, I thought, quite elegant. This took about half a year but eventually gave me the opportunity to hear all manner of sounds I'd never heard before, patterns that gave me thoughts of little green men along with all manner of sunrises and sunsets and the great red spot on Jupiter. After a year or so as Acting Dean and Provost at UCSC in the early 1980s, I took my first sabbatical and decided to spend some time traveling, as well as considering what I'd do for contrast. What then occurred was probably more of a mid-life crisis than a break from academia. I gathered a robust and professional group of scientists, artists, and musicians to help make my dream a reality. This group included professional radio astronomers, architects, electronics experts, surveyors, and maybe six or seven other very gifted people in the fields of law, financial experts, and publicists. Unfortunately, the few thousands of dollars we were able to raise would not cover the publication of this book, and thus, after several years, the wonderful group of dedicated board members and I gave up on the project which produced the book you are now reading the back cover (of). While the dreams of this project still occasionally makes dreams for us, most are fully aware of the gravity of projects like this and the cost of observatories (both of the radio telescopic variety and the mirror and lens variety) and know that without incredible support, few of these actually get built. .