Thomas Ashcraft

He resides and maintains a laboratory and studio west of Villanueva, New Mexico where he operates the Observatory of Heliotown. Research-grade images, audio, and video captured at the observatory have been featured on NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day blog. Living isolated from the technological world in New Mexico, Ashcraft started to self learn radio astronomy in 1990.

Thomas Ashcraft studied at McGill University. The recorded working language is English. Residence is recorded at Santa Fe County. Works named in the authority record are Coordinated observations of sprites and in-cloud lightning flash structure. Distinctions recorded are Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Award.

In 1992, Ashcraft built the Fast Drift Burst Observatory, also called the Radio Fireball Observatory for monitoring and recording fireballs, space dust, and meteoric phenomena. He has made numerous innovations in the merging of optical and radio telescope technology. In 2001, he began observing Jupiter, the sun and ionospheric phenomena with NASA's Radio Jove Project. In 2009, Ashcraft began noting lightning-generated phenomena called transient luminous events (red sprites) on his radio-optical telescope systems. Over time he has established a multi-faceted observatory devoted to the capture and study of this rarely imaged phenomenon.

Ashcraft is primarily a sculptor and installation artist incorporating space, time, mind, sound, and electricity. He is also a figurative sculptor exploring biological subjects such bacteriophages, viruses, microbes, and medicinal plants. He was awarded a Louis Comfort Tiffany Prize in art in 2005.