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The SETI League was well represented at the Sixth International Bioastronomy Conference in Hawaii, 1 - 6 August 1999. We are pleased that two Regional Coordinators, one Committee chairman, a member of our Advisory Board, and our Executive Director were among the fourteen SETI League members (nine of whom posed here) present at this sixth such triennial meeting. SETI League photo

One problem with a large meeting is the difficulty of getting SETI League members all together in one place for a group photo. Here (as a continuation of the previous image) are a few more of the fourteen SETI League members who attended Bioastronomy '99 in August. SETI League photo

Attendees at the Sixth International Bioastronomy Conference in August saw an impressive collection of optical and radio telescopes, at 4200 meters of altitude atop Hawaii's Mauna Kea volcano. SETI League photo

SETI League members attending Bioastronomy '99 had an opportunity to visit the two ten-meter Keck telescopes, the world's largest such instruments, now being used in the search for extra-solar planets. SETI League photo

The Keck telescopes are best known for their segmented mirror design, the brainchild of Dr. Jerry Nelson from the University of California, Berkeley. SETI League photo

While atop Mauna Kea, SETI League executive director H. Paul Shuch pays a visit to the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, one of the world's most sensitive millimeter-wave radio telescopes. SETI League photo

This is the westernmost antenna in the Very Long Baseline Array, an interferometer which extends from Hawaii all the way to the U.S. Virgin Islands. SETI League photo

The landscape on the slopes of Mauna Kea is reminiscent of the Martian terrain, as seen by Earth's various space probes to the red planet... SETI League photo

...and in fact, with a little digital processing, can easily be mistaken for a Viking Lander or Sojourner Rover image. These photos, of purely terrestrial origin, highlight why ETI researchers must be so cautious in their analysis of photographic evidence. SETI League photo

According to planet-hunter Geoff Marcy (seen here at Bioastronomy '99 discussing the three-planet system orbiting Upsilon Andromedae), we now have evidence to suggest that perhaps four percent of all main-sequence stars have Jupiter-class planetary companions, and that as many as 95% of sunlike stars could be home to terrestrial planets. SETI League photo

Laurance R. Doyle of the SETI Institute reports on the first search for terrestrial planets around eclipsing binaries, at the 6th International Bioastronomy Conference in Hawaii, August 1999. SETI League photo

For the two days prior to Bioastronomy '99, the Foundation For the Future sponsored a seminar on the cultural impact of extraterrestrial contact. Here Dr. John Billingham, former NASA Life Sciences researcher and cochair of the landmark Project Cyclops study group, reports to the Conference on that seminar's conclusions. SETI League photo

Steven Dick of the U.S. Naval Observatory is author of the first textbook on bioastronomy, published by Cambridge University Press. Here he speaks about the cultural aspects of astrobiology, saying its inntradisciplinary nature "produces an unprecedented opportunity to encourage the unity of knowledge." SETI League photo

Bioastronomy '99 provided a chance for Dr. Rachel Tortolini, the SETI League's volunteer Regional Coordinator for Hawaii, to meet several of her fellow members. Rachel is seen here with her African Gray parrot, 'Meeka.' SETI League photo

Following her move to the Big Island last year, Dr. Rachel Tortolini's SETI station has begun to take shape inside her house... SETI League photo

...while outside, the pieces of her relocated ten meter diameter dish patiently await reassembly. Rachel is very much in need of volunteer labor for this ambitious project. SETI League photo

Vistas like this one made it difficult for conference attendees to keep their minds on bioastronomy. This is the view from the lobby of the conference venue, the Hapuna Prince Beach Hotel on the Kohala Coast of the island of Hawaii. SETI League photo

Bioastronomy '99 chair Dr. Karen Meech of the University of Hawaii let her hair down, and added a garland of flowers, for the luau on the final evening of the conference. SETI League photo

Dr. SETI and his ubiquitous guitar serenade Dr. Elanor Arroway -- er, Dr. Jill Tarter, and her husband, Prof. Jack Welch (seated, foreground) at the Bioastronomy '99 luau, as conference attendees look on and sing along. SETI League photo

As the Bioastronomy conference winds down, 150 astrophysicists, planetary scientists, chemists, biologists, engineers, radio astronomers, psychologists, sociologists, educators, and interested laymen from around the world gather in the hotel courtyard for the obligatory group photo. Bioastronomy '99 photo

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