It's not exactly a ride aboard the space shuttle, but Walter Cruttenden will soon realize a space dream that many amateur astronomers would certainly drool over.
The California businessman was top bidder in a recent eBay auction that bought him the right to spend a night in the control room of the Keck Observatory in Hawaii. Cruttenden will be hunting for other worlds alongside this world's top planet hunter, Geoff Marcy from the University of California, Berkeley.
"I'm totally thrilled to be meeting someone on the leading edge of discovery," Cruttenden said. "I've never done anything like this before, and I've never even been above 13,000 feet."
That's how high he'll be during his night at Keck, way up on Mauna Kea where the air is clear and observing conditions are prime.
It's not as high as the shuttle goes, but it's not as pricey either. Cruttenden paid $16,000 to win the auction, which was a fundraiser of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP).
Marcy, who co-leads a team that has found dozens of other planets around other stars, will show Cruttenden how the science of it all works on a night when real observations are done. The researchers find planets in a painstaking process that involves detecting wobbles in distant stars that are induced by the gravitational tugs of planets. No planets outside our solar system have actually been photographed.
Cruttenden, 52, is president of Cruttenden Partners in Newport Beach. He is married and has 4 sons. He is said to have a long-standing interest in astronomy. No word yet on who he will take with him. The all-expense-paid trip is for two.
On a date yet to be determined, Cruttenden and his guest will be flown to the big island of Hawaii for a 5-day trip. They will receive a tour of the W. M. Keck Observatory, which includes two 10-meter telescopes, the world's largest optical telescopes.
The guests will have dinner with Marcy and spend the overnight hours in the control room with Marcy and other scientists.
The ASP will donate 5 percent of the proceeds to the local astronomy club of Cruttenden's choice. The rest will support the organization's education and outreach efforts. The ASP was founded in 1889 and is based in San Francisco.
"The ASP has the wonderful goal of bringing the beauty and mystery of the universe to young folks in the classroom, and to inquisitive folks of all ages," Marcy said.
The auction was held from Jan. 14-23.
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