Walter and Lee Hawley came to St. Paul's in 1968 with a dream to teach astronomy.
There had been a history of an astronomy club at SPS using the existing dome on the playing fields with the Alvin Clark telescope.
Walter soon invigorated this club with the idea of adding astronomy to the science curriculum as soon as possible.
This done, he turned his sights on the old golf course area of the grounds and construction for the current observatory was begun in 1985.
Walter began constructing a program and gathering equipment and built the foundation for our current program.
He has always presented a cutting edge program including astrophotography with super fast film baked in a hydrogen bath, with Walter and his wife Lee doing the baking.
Lee has been intimately involved with the observatory since the early nineties.
We have gone digital in the recent past but Walter, although officially retired, continues to offer his expertise and support to the program and is considered an integral part of the astronomy team at SPS.
Faculty
Brendan J. Cohen
Astronomy
B.A.
Yale University
History of Science
B.A.
Yale University
Originally from Hanover, NH, Brendan Cohen graduated from Hanover High School in 2001.
Mr. Cohen gained his initial experience in the classroom while teaching at the Hill School, a boarding school in Pottstown, PA.
There he taught physics and coached swimming.
He joined the SPS faculty in the fall of 2006, although he is no stranger to the School.
He is a 2000 graduate of the Advanced Studies Program and also spent two summers as an intern in the ASP's astronomy class and was the master teacher in that subject in the summer of 2006.
Ian M. Hoffman
Physics
Ph.D.
University of New Mexico
Physics
M.S.
University of New Mexico
Astronomy
B.A.
Colgate University
Ian Hoffman grew up in Buffalo where he graduated from the Nichols School.
Having been turned on to astrophysics by his piano teacher during middle school, he subsequently studied astronomy at Colgate University.
After beginning graduate school at Penn State where he realized his dream to become a pulsar astronomer, he got married and finished his dissertation on interstellar masers at the University of New Mexico and at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.
As part of his studies, Dr. Hoffman has visited observatories throughout the United States as well as in Puerto Rico, Spain, and England.
After graduate school, Dr. Hoffman worked designing and building particle accelerators for Linac Systems and as a laser spectroscopist for government customers at ITT Industries.
Prior to teaching at SPS, Dr. Hoffman was a lecturer at the University of New Mexico and at New Mexico Tech.
Richard R. Pacelli, Jr.
Religious Education
M.A.
Fairfield University
Engineering
B.S.
Princeton University
Rick Pacelli was raised in Fairfield, CT, in a close-knit community where he played sports all day in the road and the backyard.
Mr. Pacelli teaches Physics and Astronomy at St. Paul's, and has made strong connections to students in his time here.
He is also the assistant girls varsity basketball coach and has had experience coaching baseball as well.
In his words, ``I love participating in the lives of young people.''
He is also involved in the Chapel Program as the School Verger.
Mr. Pacelli previously worked for the Shell Oil company, at Covenant House in crisis intervention, and was the chaplain at Iona College.
Directly prior to joining the SPS community, Mr. Pacelli taught physics, math, and theology and coached several sports at Fairfield Preparatory School in Fairfield, CT.
Students
Stephanie Crocker, '08
Stephanie Crocker hails from Poughkeepsie, New York.
Ever since she observed a spectacular meteor shower with her dad, Stephanie hasn't been able to keep her eyes off the night sky.
After settling into St. Paul's third-form year, Stephanie dove into astronomy courses during her fourth-form year.
Since then she has taken the three astronomy courses that are offered and her senior year she has done three terms of independent study.
Next year Stephanie will be heading to Dartmouth where her focus will be on science.
Andy Kohl, '08
Andy Kohl is from Charlotte, NC.
Andy first came upon astronomy in Mr. Pacelli's Physics First class freshman year.
He has subsequently began studying astronomy and it has become one of his favorite hobbies.
He spends most of his free time using the telescopes for astrophotography.
His goal is to have one of his photos published either online or in an astronomy magazine.
Heather McCarrick, '08
Heather McCarrick came to St. Paul's in third form from New Canaan, CT.
Mr. Pacelli introduced her to astronomy when she was taking his Physics class freshman year.
Since then she has taken an astronomy course every year including two terms of an academic independent study that were completed with fellow classmates interested in the field.
Heather also spent the summer of 2007 taking a five-week astronomy course at Yale.
Next Fall she will be attending Wesleyan in Middletown, CT and plans to major in astronomy.
Graham Vickowski, '08
Graham is from Longmeadow, MA.
He came to St. Paul's as a new fourth former in the Fall of 2005 and started taking astronomy courses right off the bat.
He has spent many summers at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, AZ, working on the grounds crew, in the public program, and most recently as a summer student/programmer/observer helping with the Lowell Observatory Near Earth Object Search.
Graham will be attending McGill University next year (and, hopefully, the three years after that, as well), and hopes to be a physics major.
Eventually Graham hopes to become a research astrophysicist.
Graham also enjoys mountaineering and Nordic skiing (both of which he will pursue next year at McGill).
Sam Simmons, '09
I am currently a fifth former at St. Paul's from Woodbury, CT.
I was introduced to astronomy at one of the Observatory open houses and was intrigued enough to sign up for several classes.
Since then astronomy has become one of my major interests and one which I hope to pursue outside of school.
I spent last summer at Northwestern University reducing data and creating radio maps of M42 and M43.
Another student and I were using 6-cm data from the Very Large Array which Prof. Yusef-Zadeh had.
We were looking for string-like structures in the nebula which had been observed for the first time in a previous 20-cm survey.
The year, Heather, Graham, and I have been working on outfitting one of our telescopes with a CCD camera.
With this more sensitive instrument we hope to be able to do some more scientific observation as well as taking pretty pictures.
Ryan Foote, '07
A resident of Bedford, New Hampshire, Ryan has always been looking at the stars.
His main reason for applying to St. Paul's was the fact that the school offered astronomy courses and had four domes of its own.
Now at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ryan hopes to continue his exploration of the heavens as a physics major interested in astro- and particle physics.
Alison Crocker, '02
I count myself extremely lucky to have discovered my love for astronomy at St. Paul's.
I'll never forget the magic of first finding star clusters and galaxies in the Dobsonians, not first seeing the rings of Saturn or the moons of Jupiter.
I loved spending nights up at the observatory, and I recognize now what a unique experience it was - very few of the other Ph.D. students here at Oxford have had a time in their life when they have used telescopes so frequently.
Additionally, I'm grateful that the SPS astronomy program introduced me to research with our self-initiated research projects.
The thrill of finally discovering the identity of the mysterious lines in my stellar spectra (the sodium D lines) after many nights of frustrating literature research is something I'll always remember, even if I spend the rest of my life in astrophysics research!
James Perencevich, '00
"Astronomy at St. Paul's School was and remains an active and engaging learning experience.
In class by day, observing by night, I spent the better part of two years having my teenage brain inspired and humbled by open clusters, spiral galaxies, and quasars."
Jamie graduated with a B.A. in physics from Dartmouth in 2004, returned to SPS as an instructor in the Advanced Studies Program, and worked at the Haverford School.
Walter and Lee Hawley came to St. Paul's in 1968 with a dream to teach astronomy.
There had been a history of an astronomy club at SPS using the existing dome on the playing fields with the Alvin Clark telescope.
Walter soon invigorated this club with the idea of adding astronomy to the science curriculum as soon as possible.
This done, he turned his sights on the old golf course area of the grounds and construction for the current observatory was begun in 1985.
Walter began constructing a program and gathering equipment and built the foundation for our current program.
He has always presented a cutting edge program including astrophotography with super fast film baked in a hydrogen bath, with Walter and his wife Lee doing the baking.
Lee has been intimately involved with the observatory since the early nineties.
We have gone digital in the recent past but Walter, although officially retired, continues to offer his expertise and support to the program and is considered an integral part of the astronomy team at SPS.