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Reopening A Window to Space

Students, Faculty Carry Out Interdisciplinary Quest to Refurbish Ortega Telescope

May 19, 2025

6 min


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When Luis Quiroga-Nuñez, Ph.D was appointed director of Florida Tech’s Ortega Observatory and its primary tenant – a non-functioning, 32-inch telescope – in 2023, he decided it was time to provide astronomy students and others a window to space.


The observatory is already a base for research across a spectrum of cosmic exploration through disciplines such as astronomy and astrophysics, heliophysics, planetary science and astrobiology. However, current students have yet to see the stars up close, as the aging telescope, commissioned in 2008, has sat dormant for the last several years.


With restoration, the telescope could be a powerful tool to train students to use professional telescopes and make observations – critical skills that will help prepare them for their future careers.


It soon became apparent, however, that this was no simple task. The restoration would necessitate reverse engineering on a large scale to even understand how to fix and upgrade the telescope, much less actually repair it. It would also, as Quiroga-Nuñez wisely recognized, be its own powerful educational opportunity, providing unique hands-on learning opportunities for students in the College of Engineering and Science.


“We are an institute of technology. We have perfectly capable people, like these young students, ready to join hands-on projects, get crazy and start to be creative.”
Luis Quiroga-Nuñez


With various issues to tackle and eager to support home-grown expertise, Quiroga-Nuñez and Lee Caraway, Ph.D, an instructor in the department of electrical engineering and computer science, recruited students with varied backgrounds, from astronomy to electrical engineering and computer science. Students could apply what they learned in class and grow their portfolios with a real-world project, the sort of experiential learning that is a hallmark of a Florida Tech education.


Some improvements have been made, but the project remains an exciting puzzle for students and faculty alike. Here’s how they are doing it.


An Interdisciplinary Project


In January 2023, Quiroga-Nuñez partnered with Caraway to rebuild the telescope from the inside out. They say the conversation started over lunch, sketching ideas on a napkin.


With various issues to tackle and eager to support home-grown expertise, Caraway and Quiroga-Nuñez recruited students with varied backgrounds, from astronomy to engineering to computer science.


“This is about as real-world as you can get without leaving school. We have this giant piece of technology that is not working. Figure out why,” said recent graduate Adrianna Agustin ’24, who helped update the telescope’s communication system. “All of those problem-solving skills will directly translate to wherever we go in the future.”
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The project’s multidisciplinary nature also boosts collaboration between both sides of the college.






“We keep integrating different parts of the university and involving students in a project that we were blinded by,” Quiroga-Nuñez says. “We sit between the scientists and the engineers.”



And there’s no shortage of tasks. In addition to the refurbishment, Quiroga-Nuñez and Caraway are also completing routine telescope maintenance, with students taking on adjacent projects around the observatory.


With the telescope repair, each student is given their own task, such as redesigning a small clip that supports the dome’s electric current, reviewing the conditions of the finder’s lens or understanding how analog devices control the telescope’s focus. This allocation allows each student to claim their own individual contribution to the greater telescope puzzle.


Opening a Time Capsule


The telescope’s biggest issues were mechanical and electrical, all exacerbated by age.


Its motors were decades old and naturally failing, Caraway said. These motors controlled the telescope’s right ascension and declination – essentially, its ability to move. The chaotic interior also involved multiple individual systems with dozens of wires.


And the circuits controlling the motors, which dated back to the 1980s, were also failing due to age. As Caraway noted, his students are sweeping off “dust older than them.”


“The technology back then simply did not exist to control the motors, run the diagnostics and make it all happen,” Caraway explained. “They’re not designed to run 30 years.”


Additionally, the computer program that controlled the motors was outdated and did not meet to the university’s security requirements.


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Given all this, the team needed to develop a new communication system for the telescope, starting with the computer software. They decided instead of purchasing an upgraded computer system, they could build and program their own in-house from scratch.


Next, once the new computer was up and running, it needed motors to command. Marisa Guerra ’24 worked on a senior design project involving a robotic arm whose motor structure was the same as the telescope’s. She crafted a blueprint for the telescope’s new motors using what she learned for her capstone project.


At the same time, Agustin worked on developing a cleaner communication system between the computer to the motors. Her senior design research focused on electric vehicles and their internal circuit systems, and she could replicate something similar within the telescope – but not without digging through the decaying electronics first.


“We had to reverse engineer and actually redraw the circuits, which was good practice because a lot of the time, for senior design at least, you don’t really have to design a new circuit. You are just kind of puzzle-piecing it together,” Agustin said. “But with this circuit, all of them were bad.”


Using Guerra’s and Agustin’s senior design research, the team reprogrammed the telescope’s circuits. What once took 20 wires to operate now only takes two. They also reduced the weight of the telescope’s motors from 40 pounds to just 2 pounds.


Once the communication system was finished, the team was just waiting for mobility. And on a day in Spring 2024, thanks to the refurbished system, they were able to create movement within the telescope for the first time in years.


“I didn’t even know if that device could move internally,” Quiroga-Nuñez says.


The moment was celebrated, but the team knew this success triggered a new challenge. It was time to tackle high astrometric precision – a crucial element of properly tracking movement in space.


“We are pointing to tiny points in the sky. If we do not track that properly, we are going to be lost in the universe,” Quiroga-Nuñez says.


The Value of Time


Perfecting precise movement is expected to take some time, but that’s not a bad thing, Quiroga-Nuñez says. He believes that a lengthy timeline will offer more value in the long run because it will give even more students a chance to get involved. Besides, its primary purpose will be to teach students how to use a telescope and allow them to make observations and prepare for their future careers.


Ultimately, Quiroga-Nuñez predicts that the telescope could pick up its first image from space in about a year if everything stays on track. However, the team still has a lot of ground within the telescope to uncover, with an unpredictable number of potential troubleshooting challenges.


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For example, while rebuilding the motor, they discovered that the internal mirror that illuminates the telescope’s visuals was in poor condition – it needed cleaning and new aluminum to reflect enough light to see the telescope’s imagery, Agustin explains. So, the team had to remove the mirror and ship it to New York for refurbishment – a process that took several months. Once the mirror is reinstalled, they can return to their quest for better precision.


The mirror is just one example of unpredictability in reverse-engineering. Ultimately, dedicating more time to understanding and solving the unforeseen challenges allows more students to participate in the telescope’s journey, Quiroga-Nuñez says.


“This is like a big Lego for them,” he says. “They are learning the process, and the students, I think, will have found a very valuable life experience.”


If you're interested in connecting with Luis Quiroga-Nuñez, director of Florida Tech’s Ortega Observatory - simply contact  Adam Lowenstein, Director of Media Communications at Florida Institute of Technology at adam@fit.edu to arrange an interview today.

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