Nerds in Space

I stumbled across this page on the internet while looking for something else. The title tells all:
The One Eye That Sees All: Integral Field Spectroscopy with SAURON on the WHT

http://www.ing.iac.es/PR/newsletter/news2/sauron.pdf

From the March 2000 ING newsletter

Here’s another paper. “WHHT” is the William Herschel Telescope.

http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/links/doi/10.1046/j.1365-8711.2001.04612.x

When have non-nerds been involved in space science in any significant way?

How do you know it’s really nerds, anyways? It might be the (would-be) Dark Lord of Arda himself, you know, comin’ back for a look-see…