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Thomas Ashcraft

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Thomas Ashcraft (born 1951) is an American scientist, naturalist, scientific instrument-maker, and artist.[1] He is known for his observations of transient luminous events (lightning sprites),[2] meteoric fireballs,[3] solar radio and optical phenomena,[4] and Jupiter radio emissions.[5]

He is currently artist and citizen scientist in residence at the Santa Fe Institute.[6] He resides and maintains a laboratory and studio outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico where he operates the Observatory of Heliotown.[7] Research-grade images, audio, and video captured at the observatory have been featured on NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day blog.[8][9]

Biography

Thomas Ashcraft was born in Springfield, Illinois in 1951.

Ashcraft studied natural philosophy at McGill University in Montreal from 1972 through 1975. After college, he moved to the Arkansas Ozarks and became an artisan building custom tools for artists in the form of weaving looms and quilting frames.

In the early 1980s, Ashcraft was an initiator of the OAK Currency Project which was an Ozark-wide bioregional economic experiment.[10]

In 1987, Ashcraft moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico to pursue art, sculpture, and independent science practice.

Science practice

In 1992, Ashcraft built the Radio Fireball Observatory[11] for monitoring and recording fireballs, space dust, and meteoric phenomena. He has made numerous innovations in the merging of optical and radio telescope technology.[12] In 2001, he began observing Jupiter, the sun, and ionospheric phenomena with NASA's Radio Jove Project.[13]

In 2009, Ashcraft began noting lightning-generated phenomena called transient luminous events (red sprites)[14] on his radio-optical telescope systems. Over time he has established a multi-faceted observatory devoted to the capture and study of this rarely imaged phenomenon.[15]

Art practice

Ashcraft is primarily a sculptor and installation artist incorporating space, time, mind, sound, and electricity.[16] He is also a figurative sculptor exploring biological subjects such bacteriophages, viruses, microbes, and medicinal plants.[17] He was awarded a Louis Comfort Tiffany Prize[18] in art in 2005.

Selected publications

Papers

  • Gaopeng Lu, Steven A. Cummer, Jingbo Li, Lucian Zigoneanu, Walter A. Lyons, Mark A. Stanley, William Rison, Paul R. Krehbiel, Harald E. Edens, Ronald J. Thomas, William H. Beasley, Stephanie A. Weiss, Richard J. Blakeslee, Eric C. Bruning, Donald R. MacGorman, Tiffany C. Meyer, Kevin Palivec, Thomas Ashcraft, and Tim Samaras (2013) Coordinated observations of sprites and in-cloud lightning flash structure, American Geophysical Union, JGR Atmospheres


References

  1. ^ "Thomas Ashcraft | Citizen Scientist / Scientific Instrument Maker / Observer". NASA Solar System Exploration.
  2. ^ Blakeslee, Sandra (September 28, 2014). "On the Hunt for a Sprite on a Midsummer's Night". The New York Times.
  3. ^ "APOD: 2021 March 15 - Meteor Fireballs in Light and Sound". apod.nasa.gov.
  4. ^ "As Sun Flares Up, Sky Watchers Check Microphones". NPR.org.
  5. ^ "AGU - iPosterSessions.com". agu2020fallmeeting-agu.ipostersessions.com.
  6. ^ "Heliotown II | Santa Fe Institute". www.santafe.edu.
  7. ^ rnott@sfnewmexican.com, Robert Nott. "Citizen scientist driven by the need to discover". Santa Fe New Mexican.
  8. ^ Nemiroff, Robert. "Astronomy Picture of the Day: Meteor Fireballs in Light and Sound". APOD. apod.nasa.gov. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  9. ^ Nemiroff, Robert. "Astronomy Picture of the Day: Sprite Lightning at 100,000 Frames Per Second". APOD. apod.nasa.gov. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  10. ^ Staff, The Schumacher Center. "Bioregionalism, Tribal Sovereignty, and Regional Banking".
  11. ^ Mexican, Staci Matlock The New. "Artist-turned-astronomer tracks the galaxy's glowing, traveling orbs". Santa Fe New Mexican.
  12. ^ "How an Astronomical Mystery Was Explained by High-Tech Photography". Gizmodo.
  13. ^ "The JOVE Bulletin October 2002 Issue". radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov.
  14. ^ "APOD: 2021 January 4 - Sprite Lightning at 100000 Frames Per Second". apod.nasa.gov.
  15. ^ Mann, Adam. "Otherworldly Photos Capture Mysterious Phenomena in Upper Atmosphere". Wired – via www.wired.com.
  16. ^ "Explorations Of The Invisibles. Freedom & Power In The Electromagnetic • Digicult | Digital Art, Design and Culture". Digicult | Digital Art, Design and Culture. December 5, 2011.
  17. ^ says, Corazon Ledesma (March 5, 2020). "Thomas Ashcraft's Hopeful Reminder in Fearful Times".
  18. ^ "Thomas Ashcraft". The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation.
  • Heliotown, Thomas Ashcraft's observatory website
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