Jonathan C. Spargo

SOCORRO, N.M., May 13, 2000 -- Anyone who has gone up to Etscorn Campus Observatory (ECO) in the past several years, whether to view Comet Hale-Bopp, check out the planets during the monthly star party, or see the array of telescopes assembled for the Enchanted Skies Star Party, has probably heard an ebullient voice in the darkness, expounding on the night sky to visitors. Chances are the voice belonged to Jon Spargo, an avid amateur astronomer whose volunteer activities at ECO have made it one of New Mexico Tech's premiere outreach facilities for bringing science to the public.

At the university's commencement ceremonies on May 13, New Mexico Tech thanked Spargo by presenting him with an honorary degree: a master's in astronomical instrumentation. It is the most recent of several honors received by a man whose volunteer activities seem to reach almost every corner of the Socorro community.

Spargo is a founding member and past president of the Socorro Train Gang, the railroad enthusiasts who display model trains in the Hammel Museum. He is an active member of the Socorro Amateur Radio Association and the Socorro County Historical Society. He is vice president and safety officer of the New Mexico Steam Locomotive and Railroad Historical Society, whose current project is restoring to operation a Santa Fe Railroad locomotive located in Albuquerque. In 1997, Spargo was named the Socorro County Chamber of Commerce Man of the Year. In 1998, he was inducted into Sigma Pi Sigma, a national honorary society of the Society of Physics Students. But it is his work with ECO that brought him the honor from Tech.

Spargo was the driving force in acquiring a variety of telescopes, selecting a location for them, and getting ECO built, maintained, and continuously operated. He is also one of the founders and key organizers of the annual Enchanted Skies Star Party, which brings amateur astronomers from around the country to Socorro every fall.

"My interest in astronomy dates back to my days as a kid on a farm in Dover, N.J.," Spargo recalls. "My father used to take me to the Hayden Planetarium in New York City as a birthday present, and once he bought me a three-inch telescope. Later, when I was in the Air Force (from 1963 to 1967), I read Intelligent Life in the Universe by Carl Sagan and I. S. Shklovskii and Walter Sullivan's We Are Not Alone. In the latter book, I saw pictures of the radio equipment that Frank Drake used in Project Ozma, the first serious attempt to listen for extraterrestrial signals. His equipment looked very much like what I was using in the Air Force."

Spargo had visited Green Bank, W. Va., on a high school field trip and had seen the radio telescopes operated by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). "When I was getting out of the Air Force, I saw a job ad for NRAO. I applied, told them my experience, and they offered me a job on the spot as a telescope operator."

"I spent eight years in Green Bank, operating the Green Bank Interferometer, which was the prototype of the Very Large Array (VLA)," Spargo recounts. "When the VLA got started, I convinced NRAO to send me to New Mexico. I knew something of the area because my sister had gotten her bachelor's and master's degrees in archaeology at the University of New Mexico. In June of 1975, NRAO transferred me to Socorro.

"Socorro is the largest city I've ever lived in," adds Spargo. "In West Virginia, my wife Dora and I used to drive 30 miles to a city the size of Socorro to do our monthly grocery shopping."

Etscorn Campus Observatory got its start in 1991, when Spargo approached the New Mexico Tech Astronomy Club, looking for a home for a 6-inch telescope. Over the next couple of years, driven mostly by Spargo's efforts, an observatory site was found, blueprints were developed, costs were estimated, and two more telescopes needing homes were found. All that was lacking was the money to build the building. Jon conferred with Dr. Frank Etscorn, a New Mexico Tech psychology professor, amateur astronomer, and inventor of the nicotine patch.

"Then Frank's ship came in," recalls Spargo. "He got a check for the nicotine patch, and he said, 'Go build your observatory, folks.'" In 1993, the observatory was dedicated to Etscorn.

Currently, the observatory houses three telescopes: a 20-inch Dobsonian on long-term loan from astronomy club member Ken Mason; a Celestron 14-inch telescope belonging to the Physics Department, and the original six-inch. ECO also owns a 25-inch telescope waiting for a home, and two domes, salvaged from White Sands Missile Range, waiting to house telescopes.

The Enchanted Skies Star Party (ESSP), which began in 1994, was also, in part, the brainchild of Jon Spargo. ESSP is unique among the many star parties held by amateur astronomers nationwide in that it combines the interests of professional astronomers at Tech and NRAO and students at Tech with those of amateur astronomers from around the country. Every fall, during the new moon that falls in late September or early October, amateur astronomers from around the country converge on ECO for the four-day event. In addition, other visitors come throughout the year, attracted by what they've heard of Socorro's dark skies.

ECO is used for research as well as for public viewing. Dr. Dan Klinglesmith, an astronomer and part-time lecturer at Tech, uses the 14-inch Celestron in an ongoing project to measure positions of comets and asteroids, to refine data on their orbits. Several astronomy club members who learned astronomical and project management skills at Jon Spargo's elbow have moved on to graduate schools and jobs where they successfully apply these skills.

Spargo and Klinglesmith have collaborated on long-term plans for ECO's development. The plans include adding a couple of small radio telescopes, which can essentially function as a teaching interferometer for Tech students; putting the 6-inch telescope in an improved dome and adding a CCD to it for planetary observations; putting the 25-inch telescope, now in storage, in a 16-foot dome which was gleaned from White Sands Missile Range surplus; and making some physical improvements to ECO's water supply and light-screening berm.

Spargo is NRAO's Safety Officer and also operates his own private consulting business: Stellar Safety Services, which performs safety audits and program evaluations. His company has a web page at www.sdc.org/~kc5ntw. He also holds a one year, renewable appointment as an adjunct research scientist in Tech's Research and Economic Development Division.