Time Line

The following is a brief and approximate time line of Stuart Kingsley's Optical SETI activities over the past eight years:

1990

In June, commenced the revisiting of the optical approach to SETI and promoted Professional Optical Heterodyning receiving systems for the detection of continuous wave (cw) beacon signals.

1991

Gave a presentation on my work at NASA Ames Research Center in April. This was the first opportunity to meet many of the "big names" in the SETI community, including the late Barney Oliver, Jill Tarter,  John Billingham and Kent Cullers.  Opened a bulletin board system (BBS) for Optical SETI.

1992

Described Professional Optical SETI using direct detection systems for the detection of cw beacons. Organized the OSETI I conference. Promoted the benefits of pulsed signals (ala Monte Ross) for SETI-type communications. Started designing and building the COSETI Observatory based on the detection of pulsed beacons. Purchased Meade LX200 10" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. Started the organization for the OSETI I conference.

1993

Organized and participated in the OSETI I conference at the LA Airport and participated in the Santa Cruz Bioastronomy meeting. Submitted a SBIR proposal in June to NSF for Signal, Data Processing, Display and Storage for Optical SETI Observatories and a second SBIR proposal in July to NASA for A High-Resolution Computerized Monochromator for Optical SETI Observatories. The former proposal dealt with the detection of pulsed laser beacons while the latter dealt with the detection of monochromatic continuous wave (cw) laser beacons. Neither of the proposals were accepted. These are the only proposals on OSETI that have ever been submitted to funding agencies by ETI Photonics.

9308-004

1994

Promoted Amateur Optical SETI based on pulsed beacon detection and organized the OSETI II conference. Continued with the construction of the COSETI Observatory. Added an addition to my home in the form of a 240 sq. ft. control and conference room. Erected a 10 ft. diameter fiber-glass dome in backyard to house telescope. Conducted shake-down experiments. Hosted an open-house on July 20, the 25th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Presented a paper on the COSETI Observatory at the 45th International Astronautical Congress in Israel.

1995

Disassembled the 10 ft. diameter dome and added another wall ring to increase height from 6 ft. to 7 ft. Added 2045D SCT and ST-7 CCD camera. Upgraded the LX200 SCT. Conducted more shake-down experiments. Started the organization for the OSETI II conference.

1996

Organized and participated in the OSETI II conference in San Jose and set up this Web site on CompuServe. In May, gave lecture on OSETI at IEE Headquarters in London, England.   Set up second and third linked Web sites on Sprynet. In September, gave talk at Kent State University.  Reserved www.coseti.org domain name for The Columbus Optical SETI Observatory.

1997

Set up www.coseti.org with a local ISP (Netwalk) and consolidated all three Web sites.  Proposed that the next OSETI conference be held in 2001.  Closed down BBS system.

1998

Optical SETI officially recognized as a viable approach to SETI.  Set up dates for OSETI III conference in February 2001.

1999

Launched associated E-Commerce Web Site on store.yahoo.com/coseti.

• History of The COSETI Observatory