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U. Maryland Astronomy - Kitt Peak
Summer School '04

Photos and text by Elizabeth Warner
          Liaison to Amateur Astronomers, Deep Impact mission
          UM Astronomy Observatory Director
Photos © Elizabeth Warner
Unless otherwise noted, images were taken with a Canon EOS D30 digital camera with a 28-135mm lens.
Click on a thumbnail to see the larger version. For a hi-res copy of any image, contact Elizabeth Warner.

Proposals
-- Elizabeth's

In 2003, the UM Astronomy Department became part of the UM-NOAO* collaboration at Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, AZ. This new partnership gives department faculty and students designated time on certain telescopes at Kitt Peak. It was no longer feasible to do high quality observational research locally (College Park, MD) because of the light pollution and general weather -- we are at the bottom of the atmospheric soup! Instead, the campus observatory is used to teach undergraduates and for public outreach. In addition, to build a new facility is also very expensive especially when excellent facilities like Kitt Peak exist. This summer, the department decided to have a "summer school" to give some of the grad students experience in writing observing proposals and to 'train' them on some of the instruments and telescopes available at Kitt Peak. Because of my duties with the Deep Impact mission and as the campus Observatory director, I was able to go along, even though I'm not a grad student.

* National Optical Astronomy Observatory

7 July

Most of us flew out of the DC area on 7 July. I was the first one out at 6:30am out of BWI. Of course, the plane didn't leave on time -- I got a free headphone out of it. Just barely made my connection in Houston. I like window seats cause I like to watch. As we flew westward from Houston, the scenery changed from luscious green to desert. As we passed El Paso (?), I noticed that the air had gotten extremely hazy. Shortly afterwards, the reason became apparent as a mountain in the distance appeared. Now I couldn't see the fires, but I doubt that is fog coming off the mountain!

Before we get too far, let's introduce our little tour group:

8 July

Not everyone arrived yesterday. There were some flight delays and cancellations, so some got in really late and others would arrive later in the day. In the meantime, those of us who were there, elected Dave (newly minted PhD!) as leader and headed over to the NOAO offices for a tour of their facility.

After the tour, it was time to pack the cars and head up to Kitt Peak. We weren't sure when lunch ended, but we were determined to get there in time!

Once we finished eating (someone, please feed these grad students!), we had a little time to ourselves (to unpack, sleep, whatever) before we had to meet at our respective posts to learn how to set up the telescopes/instruments.

Kitt Peak has lots of telescopes and lots of instruments (we'll call them 'cameras' for simplicity). While some cameras can be switched between the telescopes, others might be designed specifically for one telescope. Visiting observers can look up the technical specifications for the telescopes and instruments, find out which cameras are available (some cameras are taken out of the rotation for maintenance), and determine the best combination for their project. For this trip, we had access to 3 telescopes that each had a camera attached:

• The 2.1-m telescope with SQIID, the Simultaneous Quad Infrared Imaging Device: (in English, it is a CCD camera that can take images/pictures in four near-infrared wavelengths [or bands] at the same time)
• The 0.9-m telescope with S2KB: (optical imaging)
• Coudé Feed Telescope [small collimator + camera 5 + grating C]: (optical spectroscopy)

The first night (night 1, 8/9 July), I was assigned to the Coudé Feed. Although located in the 2.1-m building, it was not in fact being 'fed' from the 2.1-m telescope (although it can be). Imagine a giant optics table but spread through two rooms... we could walk between the optical components of the instrument. That was neat!

9 July

Called it a night sometime between 1-2am, but I stayed up until about 4am reading... wanted to get into the groove of being up all night and sleep through the day. Unlike the grad students, I still had trouble sleeping late! So I got up and took shots of the area. After lunch, we also got a tour of the WIYN 3.5-m telescope -- that really is a neat dome. Afterwards, a few of us took an 'unofficial' tour of the 4-m Mayall telescope. That would be a great place for a game of hide-and-seek! Another gorgeous sunset and then an amazing night -- we observed all night!

10 July

Two beautiful sunsets and now a sunrise! Actually it wasn't as pretty as the sunsets, maybe because I was starting to fall asleep at the camera! But I did get some shots of Venus rising. After lunch, some of us walked over to the McMath Solar Telescope and checked it out, but there was no one on hand to give us a behind the scenes tour. The afternoon was filled with thunderstorms which did not bode well for the evening. Watched another nice sunset, nearly stepped on a rattlesnake, and took some okay lightning shots. The storm was too far away. We ended up hanging out in the quonset watching movies, playing pool, and basically goofing off before it was determined (around 3am) that there was not a chance of observing tonight! So we got some sleep.

11 July

Well, since we actually got some sleep, we decided to go on a hike, supposedly to some lake. We started out and knew we might be in trouble when it became clear that no one had been on this trail in a very long time. Okay, maybe not all astronomers are outdoorsy types. And hiking by yourself isn't cool (or safe) either. But off we went. The trail was mostly downhill, steep downhill, so that some of us were wondering how we were going to climb back up. Luckily, the trail crossed the main road, so that even though it might be 'longer' it wasn't quite as steep (and maybe we could catch a ride back up?!). We finally reached a point overlooking the second ridge and watched the radio telescope move around. Dave, Kevin and Rahul went a bit further; Misty, Matthew and Rob decided to head back; and Sylvain and I decided to catch up with Dave et al. We caught up just in time to watch them hightailing it back up the trail... another rattlesnake! So we all headed back as well. Sylvain and I took the road and the guys took the trail back through the brush. Got back just in time for dinner -- can't miss our daily dose of icecream sandwiches! After dinner, we got a formal tour of the 4-m. I got to push the little button to open the vent slats! And then another beautiful sunset. And wow, what a storm over Tucson! Although it was clear overhead for us, the storm appeared to be heading our way, so it didn't look like we'd be able to observe tonight either.

The stars of Cygnus rise above the stormy clouds over Tucson, AZ.
(Mouse over the image to id some of the stars.)
[Might only work in newer browsers.]
The original slide has 14 lightning strikes.

This image was selected as the
-- Astronomy Picture of the Day for 18 August 2004,
-- Konica Minolta Photo of the Week for 31 January 2005

and appears in
-- the March/April 2005 issue of Night Sky Magazine (p54) .

• What are the streaks above the clouds? Are those meteors? No, during the long exposure, about 20 minutes, the earth has turned. Those are star trails. The 'bright' star (left of top center) is probably Gienah, ε (epsilon) Cygni, the star below epsilon (just above the clouds) is ζ (zeta).
• Picture details?? Minolta camera with 28mm lens at f/4 on a tripod. Kodak ELITE Chrome 100 (slide) film. About 20 minute exposure (used a locking shutter cable).
• What time of day? This was taken at night! While I did not write down the exact time, it was sometime between 9-10pm, possibly even later.

If you would like to see my other astrophotos, please visit my website.

12 July

Got up the last morning a little early to finish packing and make sure I got to the gift shop. I had to get some more of these really cool little necklaces that light up (wish they came in red though! I won't be allowed to wear the blue one at amateur star parties!). After lunch, we headed back to Tucson, dropped off our gear and then headed over to the Steward Observatory Mirror Lab. This is one of the meccas of astronomy. We had heard that it was under the UA football stadium, so must of us were picturing that there was a tunnel that would lead to facilities right under the playing field. In reality, the lab is located under the east stands. And it was a really neat place! But lots of security.

The Daily Pic of the 4-m

Exposure time: 1/350s Aperture: 11.0 Focal length: 28.0mm Caption: 8 July

Exposure time: 1/350s Aperture: 11.0 Focal length: 28.0mm Caption: 9 July

Exposure time: 1/500s Aperture: 13.0 Focal length: 28.0mm Caption: 10 July

Exposure time: 1/4s Aperture: 3.5 Focal length: 28.0mm Caption: 11 July

Exposure time: 1/500s Aperture: 13.0 Focal length: 35.0mm Caption: 12 July

Things I learned...

• Despite the progress that the city of Tucson has made in reducing light pollution, there is still alot of light from the city, and unfortunately from other towns around the mountain that don't have light pollution laws.
• Most of the visiting astronomers walk around with white flashlights! This was a shock to me! I have always learned to use red lights to minimize the light pollution. Now that most of the data is collected with CCDs and the astronomers sit in control rooms with computers, their dark adaptation is shot. Now, to be honest, I don't know how strict they are on real observing nights (ie, we were walking around when we weren't observing, when we were observing, we were in the control room)... guess I'll have to write a proposal and go back and observe to find out.
• Because the Deep Impact encounter with Tempel 1 is scheduled for 4 July, we will likely need to get some special dispensations for observing with some of the telescopes at Kitt Peak. Many of the telescopes have slew limits but we may need to observe/watch the comet just past those limits. In addition, monsoon season might have started, so even if it is partly cloudy and they normally wouldn't open the domes, if it is clear in the part of the sky we want to observe, we will want to observe so we will need to work with the telescope operators to find the right balance of protecting the instruments from humidity/bad weather but still getting data on a marginal night.
• I'll take my own (little) scope next time to observe through the sucker holes!

Thank you to...

• Drs. A'Hearn, McFadden (Deep Impact), Mundy and Trasco (department) for letting me go and to Dr. Veilleux for letting me tag along.
• the other participants for putting up with my shutterbug habit!
• Dr. Teuben for suggesting that I submit the lightning shot to APOD.
• Lee Tune and Ellen Ternes (Media Relations) for reviewing this page and suggesting many wonderful improvements!

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