Winer ObservatoryMark Trueblood, Director
Mark Trueblood was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1948. He became interested in astronomy when his
parents took him out into the night to show him auroras, Echo balloon satellites, lunar eclipses,
and other night time phenomena. He read Texereau's book on telescope mirror making when he was 11,
and when he was 12, he ordered a mirror making kit from Edmund Scientific Company and ground,
polished, and figured a 6-inch f/8 mirror for a Newtonian telescope. He then made the telescope
using parts purchased from the Edmund catalog using money from his allowance and from mowing
lawns. The mirror was over corrected into a hyperbola, but with the help of the local amateur
astronomy club and a commercial firm, the mirror was finally done before he was 14. Mark got the
telescope working, but lost interest in telescope making and astronomy until graduate school,
where he met Andrew J. Tomer at Wesleyan University.
It was Andy, with the encouragement of Irv Winer, who got Mark interested in telescope building and astronomy again. Andy introduced Mark to Sky & Telescope magazine, to using arc welders, vertical milling machines, and lathes, and to many of the practical aspects of telescope design and construction. Once hooked on this part of amateur astronomy, Mark became interested in astrophysics, optics, and other aspects of astronomy and instrument building that took him to a Master's Degree in astronomy and his job of 22 years at the US national observatory (NOAO) of overseeing the design and construction of instruments for the 8-m Gemini telescopes, and later, for NOAO's 4-m telescopes. Mark's educational and career highlights are summarized below.
In May 2001, the International Astronomical Union honored Mark by naming asteroid number 15522 'Trueblood' upon the recommendation of the asteroid's discoverer, Charles W. Juels, MD of Fountain Hills, Arizona. Dr. Juels discovered the asteroid on December 14, 1999 whereupon the Minor Planet Center gave it the provisional designation 1999 XX136 and announced the official name in Minor Planet Circular 42675. When the orbit was known with sufficient accuracy that it was unlikely to be lost, it was given the number 15522