Telescopic visionary

Family camping trips in the wilds of British Columbia were a formative time for entrepreneur and keen astronomer Caisey Harlingten. Lying on his back and gazing up at the night sky, he became captivated by space.

“Looking up at the deep, dark, starry sky, which you do not see in the city, I was a goner,” Caisey said.

“We used to live near a planetarium, which I frequented regularly in my twenties, so it went from there.”

Some years later, interested in building a telescope, Caisey visited Vancouver Island’s Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, which was by then defunct, and literally tripped over a large box.

Inside was a large glass mirror that had been there for over twenty years, but was too heavy to move. Its owner was the University of Tasmania, which had sent the mirror to Canada for polishing at the specialist facility.

Keen to purchase the mirror to build his own telescope, Caisey was put in touch with the University’s Dr John Greenhill, an astrophysicist who had led operations at the optical telescope facility at Hobart’s Mt Canopus. The Mt Canopus facility was under threat of decreased use due to light pollution from the city, so the University sold the mirror to Caisey.

Caisey then worked with a company in British Columbia to build a large telescope that incorporated the mirror. What he did next had not been part of the original plan. He donated the $1.5M telescope back to the University of Tasmania.

“It needed a home,” he said of the telescope that was to become the centrepiece for Tasmania’s Greenhill Observatory, named after Dr Greenhill (BScHons ’60, PhD ’67). The facility, built in 2013, wouldn’t have existed without the telescope, which is one of the largest in Australia.

Located at Bisdee Tier near Kempton in Tasmania’s Southern Midlands, the observatory has a clear view of the “deep, dark, starry sky” that so enthralled Caisey as a boy. The site has since been enhanced by Caisey’s donation of a second telescope, the Harlingten 50cm telescope, in 2022.

Caisey, a stock broker by training, went on to study astronomy at Manchester University in the UK, and now lives in Aylsham, Norfolk. His extraordinary support of the University’s space research was acknowledged at the tenth anniversary of the Greenhill Observatory in December 2023, an event that also celebrated the opening of the Harlingten 50cm telescope. In recognition of his contributions, Caisey has recently been made a Fellow of the University of Tasmania.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Rufus Black said Caisey’s donation of telescopes to the University of Tasmania has allowed students and scholars alike to further their understanding of the universe in which we live and have access to world-class equipment for their studies.

“We thank Caisey for his extraordinary commitment to the University’s space program and the advancement of science which, while living on the other side of the world, has involved deep engagement with key members of the University’s team and the provision of very substantial and imaginative support to help realise that vision,” Professor Black said.

Director of Greenhill Observatory  Professor Andrew Cole said the creation of the observatory has also opened up new avenues for University space researchers and their government and commercial partners, who have taken advantage of the excellent location to develop infrastructure for communications and tracking of satellites, space junk, and potentially hazardous objects such as small asteroids.

“These activities build on the long history of radio astronomy expertise at the University, but could not have been undertaken without the newly-developed site,” he said.