Trevor C. Weekes

Trevor Cecil Weekes (1940, Dublin, Ireland – 2014, Sahuarita, Arizona)[1] was an Irish-born, American astronomer and pioneer of gamma-ray astronomy.

He joined a team, initiated by Giovanni Fazio and Henry F. Helmken (1935–2011),[2][5] that scavenged parts from searchlight mirrors to experiment with gamma-ray detection in Arizona's Santa Rita Mountains.

[6] From 1967 to 1969 on Arizona's Mount Hopkins, Weekes, in collaboration with George H. Rieke, used two searchlight mirrors (each 1.5 meter in diameter) to make observations in the TeV range of gamma rays.

[7] Weekes was the instigator of the ground-based gamma-ray observatory named VERITAS (Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System).

After some difficulties in securing a site, an array of four 12-meter optical reflectors was built near the visitors' center about halfway up to the summit of Mount Hopkins.