Ed Beshore, principal investigator for the NASA-sponsored Catalina Sky Survey, sees his job as "one-third scientist, one-third engineer and one-third night watchman." For 24 nights each month, members of his team stand vigil at two telescopes near Mount Bigelow and one in Australia, looking for asteroids that might collide with the Earth. "So far so good," says Beshore. "We've nearly eliminated concern for the largest objects, but we haven't stopped looking."
About the scientist
Ed Beshore is a senior staff scientist at the UA Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and the UA Steward Observatory and directs the Catalina Sky Survey. Beshore has worked on the Pioneer mission to Saturn, developed software for Boeing and Hewlett-Packard and was a partner in a successful technical marketing company. Shortly after building his own observatory in Colorado, he opted for a mid-life career change, joining the Catalina Sky Survey in 2002.
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