Lowell Observatory technology to be telecast on the Discovery channels. The primary mirror of the Discovery Channel Telescope will be in diameter, with an uncommon meniscus design for such a large mirror. This mirror was ground and polished into its parabolic shape at the Optical Fabrication and Engineering Facility of the College of Optical Sciences of the University of Arizona (in Tucson, Arizona). Lowell Observatory's astronomers conduct research on a wide range of solar system and astrophysical topics using ground-based, airborne, and space-based telescopes. Among the many current programs are a search for near-Earth asteroids, a survey of the Kuiper Belt beyond
John Lowell hero Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.. Likewise Dorothy [Quincy] Jackson was descended from Judge Edmund Quincy II [1681-1737/38] who was a brother of Colonel John Quincy [1689-1767] the great-grandfather of US President John Quincy Adams. Other notable children of the daughters and granddaughters of John Lowell include mathematician Julian Lowell Coolidge, and writer and biographer Ferris Lowell Greenslet. After establishing his law practice in Newburyport in 1763, Lowell served as a town Selectman in 1771–1772, 1774 and 1776. In the spring of 1774 he signed addresses complimenting royal governors Thomas Hutchinson and Thomas Gage, but made a public apology for doing