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When it's time to polish the mirror on the Zadko telescope, it's not simply a matter of getting out the Windex and a soft cloth.

Cleaning, polishing, maintaining and resurfacing the mirror on the one-metre Cassegrain optical telescope near the Gravity Discovery Centre at Gingin requires specialised technical skills that John Moore will develop in France later this year.

Mr Moore, a Senior Technical Officer in the School of Physics, has won an Endeavour Executive Award to study the principals and processes of large telescope optical cleaning and aluminising at Observatoire de Haute- Provence in the south of France.

He will work alongside academic and professional staff for three months learning skills that will be unique in Australia, which he can then pass on to others, to potentially transform technical support of telescopes in this country.

On the way to France, Mr Moore will spend two weeks at Mauna Kea, Hawaii, where he will visit the Gemini North telescope, which has one of the two biggest single mirrors in the world, 8.1 metres in diameter.

"They have perfected techniques for cleaning and recoating mirrors," Mr Moore said. "The coating of telescope mirrors is so important because the higher the reflectivity, the better the data obtained."

He will also visit Longmont, Colorado, where the Zadko telescope was built and where the one-metre diameter mirror would need to be returned for recoating.

"Our telescope is a $1.7m purpose built, fast response telescope, donated to UWA by resource company Claire Energy, and opened by Australia's Chief Scientist in April 2009. It is the only robotic metre-class optical facility at this southern latitude between the east coast of Australia and South Africa, and can rapidly image optical transients at a longitude not monitored by other similar facilities," he said.

"Due to the Zadko telescope being completely robotic, when it receives a signal triggered from high energy satellites and other, ground-based, international facilities it automatically manoeuvres to image that part of the night sky."

Mr Moore is a fitter and first class machinist by trade and has an Advanced Diploma in Mechanical Engineering, but in his heart, he is a physicist, albeit unqualified.

He has worked on numerous scientific research projects during his 26 years at UWA including gravitational wave detection, gravity gradiometry, atomic-molecular and surface physics, frequency standards and metrology, biophysics and medical physics, astronomy and astrophysics.

"Engineering skills are a good fit with the School of Physics, because they provide a really good understanding of materials and their properties. Apparatus that the physics workshop designs and constructs requires us to work with all sorts of exotic materials that may be required to be exposed to temperatures during their manufacture or use from -269ºC (4 K) to 1,370ºC (1097 K)," he said.

"I'm thrilled to have won this award to advance my skills," Mr Moore said. "There are not so many opportunities for staff who are not academics to benefit from such high-level professional development. I hope this will encourage more professional staff to have a go at these fellowships."

Dr Judy Berman, Associate Director, Research Development Office, said the Executive Endeavour Award was a great opportunity for non-academic staff. "It's harder work for them applying for an award, as they don't necessarily have the experience of academic staff in writing research grant and award applications," she said.

"Academics who run a centre or a group can also apply for the Endeavour Executive Award, especially if they are developing links with other countries."

Dr Berman won an Endeavour Executive Award which she used last year to bring Chinese science students to UWA , to enable increased research linkages with China.

The Endeavour Executive Awards, funded by the Australian Federal Government, aim to enable high-achieving professionals to further develop their skills and knowledge and to deepen professional engagement and build linkages and networks between Australia and participating countries.

Published in UWA News , 16 May 2011