Dr. Steve Murray (Recipe for an X-ray Observatory), (Splendors of the X-ray Sky) is the Director of the High Energy Astrophysics Division of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge MA. He has been at the H-S CfA since it was formed in 1973 and has worked on most of the major US X-ray astronomy satellites. He is a developer of X-ray detectors and built the first high resolution imaging detector for X-ray astronomy which was flown on the Einstein Observatory in 1978. He is currently the Principal Investigator for the High Resolution Camera on the Chandra X-ray Observatory (launched in 1999). His science interests range from studies of Supernova Remnants to observations of Large Scale Structure in the Universe. During his career he has discovered X-ray pulsars, black holes, distant galaxies and clusters of galaxies.

The Chandra X-ray Observatory is a complex system that includes all of the analogs of a ground based astronomical observatory plus the support systems needed for operation in space. On Friday in a technical presentation, "Recipe for an X-ray Observatory", Dr. Murray will describe these components and discuss the challenges involved in the design and development of some - the X-ray telescope itself and the instrumentation in particular. The differences between operating at optical and x-ray wavelengths (energies) will be noted to illustrate the special problems and/or advantages in how to build an X-ray observatory compared with to the optical case.

On Saturday evening in "Splendors of the X-ray Sky", Dr. Murray will present results from the Chandra X-ray Observatory as it studies X-ray emission from a wide variety of cosmic objects. He will relate these to studies in radio, IR, optical, and UV wavelengths as appropriate. X-ray observations of Supernova Remnants such as the Crab Nebula and Cassiopeia A will highlight the exquisite angular resolution of Chandra. The X-ray observations of Black Hole sources in binary star systems will illustrate the power of X-ray studies in observing the unique signatures of these exotic objects. Looking further into the extragalactic sky, X-ray studies of Active Galactic Nuclei and Clusters of Galaxies help in understanding the evolution of the Universe and the distribution of matter.