Nieves Observatory Dedication

The new Luis and Linda Nieves Observatory at Soka University of America was dedicated on Saturday, October 12, 2019 at 3 p.m. Orange County Supervisor Lisa Bartlett’s representative Sergio Prince presented a special commendation to Soka President Danny Habuki and Dean of Faculty Bryan Penprase on the occasion. City of Aliso Viejo Mayor Ross Chun attended and shared his pride in the fact that Orange County’s first observatory is located in Aliso Viejo.

Luis Nieves and his family were honored for the generous gift from the Luis and Linda Nieves Family Foundation that made the observatory possible. In the future, Soka students and astronomers all over the world will be able to log in on their computers and cell phones to share in the observations from the observatory’s two powerful telescopes.

The observatory is set up with the mission to expand Soka’s mission for global citizenship into an interplanetary dimension. We hope to also work with communities of students and researchers across the world, and to enable students in the U.S., Japan, India, Taiwan, Singapore, and other countries to work together to increase our understanding of the physical universe.

The telescope has been developed using the latest technologies for modernizing a telescope mount and integrating this with an advanced operating system that students can operate from anywhere on earth. The telescope has been developed by PlaneWave Instruments of Compton, California, which has made dozens of cutting-edge research telescopes used around the world. Its advanced motors and control systems allow for very rapid acquisition of targets and accurate pointing and tracking of the night sky.

Wish you could take a peek? You can see some of the recent images taken by the observatory right now at http://sites.soka.edu/SUO/.