The Tzec Maun Student Remote Observatory

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Program Staff

Ryan M. Hannahoe is the Director of the Student Remote Observatory Project for the Tzec Maun Foundation. This project provides student access to dark sky site telescopes through the World Wide Web.   Ryan is a 19-year old freshman at East Stroudsburg University. He currently plays football at the division 2 level. In 2003, Ryan became an Eagle Scout. Over the last 3 years Ryan has given over 350 presentations across the United States. He has attended the Pennsylvania State Universities Aerospace Camp. Ryan has won several national awards for promoting Youth in Astronomy. The Astronomical League has named him Exceptional Young Astronomer. He has won both 1st and 2nd place in the national Jack Horkheimer Awards.  

Ryan is the Astronomical League's Youth Activities Committee Chairman.  In addition, he has visited and/or observed at Kitt Peak, Chamberlain, Schupmann / McGregor, Mt. Lemmon, Steward, Mt. Bigelow, Keck, Subaru, Gemini, NASA's IRTF, Lowell, Mt. Evans, Greenbank, Lick and other observatories. Ryan has more than 450 hours on professional research telescopes. He has published more than 75 articles and scientific papers.  Ryan has been featured in Sky and Telescope and other national magazines. He is editor in chief and co-author of The Sky's the Limit, The Astronomical League's guidebook for Involving Youth in Astronomy. In addition Ryan does astrophotography, and some of his images have appeared in magazines and national newsletters.  

Ryan has been instrumental in the fight to preserve our night skies. He has met with elected officials, including members of congress, to discuss how to solve the problems of light pollution and teaching astronomy. Ryan has raised thousands of dollars for this cause. Newsweek, MSNBC, CNBC, CNN, NSF, AOL, Yahoo, Associated Press, NBC, ABC, MSN, the Discovery Channel and over 850 newspapers have featured Ryan and his work.  Ryan has also presented scientific papers at SPIE, AAS, IAU, ESO, and ICO meetings. Ryan is the 2003 National Powerlifting Champion. He also received the Congressional Bronze Medal in 2003. In 2004, Ryan was nominated to the Who’s Who Among American High School Students. 

Peter Detterline teaches astronomy at Kutztown University, and is also the director of the Boyertown Planetarium in Pennsylvania where he delivers star shows to groups from pre-school through adult.   An avid observer of the night sky, he has several published papers on eclipsing binary stars and actively does research from his backyard robotic observatory.  He is a founding member of the Mars Society, and has designed and constructed a robotic observatory for their Mars Analog Research Station in the Utah desert.  Detterline was part of a crew living in Martian simulation in the habitat, and is currently the observatory director for the Mars Society.  He is also an Honorary Life Member of the Lehigh Valley Amateur Astronomical Society, which was awarded to him for his service and leadership to this group.  Peter comes to the Student Remote Observatory with an emphasis on astronomy education, and hopes to guide young people with an active interest into research opportunities with this facility.

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"Bringing more Astronomy to more people"