The Observatory, located at Forest and College roads, is open for public observing about once a month if skies are clear. Visitors can look through its 24-inch telescope or others set up outside the Observatory.
MSU offers a variety of opportunities for affiliates and members of the surrounding community to learn the basics of astronomy, simply stargaze or conduct astronomical research. These activities can be done on campus through the Observatory, or as far away as Chile, where MSU is part owner of an international telescope.
Cooperative learning
When Catherine Kennedy, an astrophysics doctoral student, researches the stars, she is able to utilize one of the best astronomical observing sites on the planet from the Biomedical and Physical Sciences Building on campus.
Sitting in front of a monitor, Kennedy can wave hello to the telescope operator as he controls the Southern Astrophysics Research, or SOAR, Telescope for her, positioned on a mountain in La Serena, Chile.
“We can remote-observe from this video chat to Chile,” said Kennedy, as she conducted research with the SOAR Telescope on June 10. “For any one specific research project there are a number of targets you want to be able to observe. Their job is to move the telescope for us and make sure that things are running smoothly for us so we can take our data.”
The SOAR Telescope is located at an altitude of 9,000 feet on a mountain called Cerro Pachn, Kennedy said. It is a reflective telescope with a diameter of 13.5 feet, which works by collecting and focusing light with mirrors, according to the MSU SOAR Telescope Web site. There are two general types of telescopes: A reflector telescope uses a mirror to reflect light, whereas a refractor telescope has a lens to refract light, said John French, production coordinator for Abrams Planetarium.
MSU is one of four owners in the SOAR Telescope partnership, with the University of North Carolina, the National Optical Astronomy Observatory and the country of Brazil, said Jack Baldwin, astronomy professor and president of the SOAR Telescope Board of Directors. The SOAR Telescope cost a total of about $43 million.
MSU has about a 14 percent share of the SOAR Telescope, which initially cost the university about $6 million in general university and donor funds, Baldwin said.
MSU first became a partner in the telescope when the project was initiated in August 1997, and will have the option of resigning in 2016, when the partnership will end. Baldwin said telescopes like the SOAR Telescope usually deliver good science for about 50 years, so continuing MSU’s involvement may be a good option, if no other better opportunities present themselves in the meantime. MSU is allowed control of the SOAR Telescope on about 40 nights per year, or about 12.5 percent of the total observing time.
“The altitude at 9,000 feet is extremely helpful for observations that I do, which are in the infrared region of the spectrum,” Kennedy said.
The infrared wavelengths of light emitted by stars are longer than can be seen with the human eye, she said.
“I look at the oldest stars in the galaxy — in the distant galaxy, in the spherical halos — some of the most metal-deficient stars” she said.
Kennedy studies the chemical compounds of the most metal-deficient stars — in astronomy any elements other than hydrogen or helium are referred to as a metal — she said.
She said she looks at what elements are in those older stars and how much of the elements are present.
“(This research) gives us insight into the chemical evolution of the galaxy. As well as information about what the first generation of stars in the universe was like,” Kennedy said.
The objects to be observed and studied depend upon the research project being conducted. Baldwin said a simple way to understand how the SOAR Telescope works is to think of it as a bucket collecting light from the stars, like raindrops from the sky.
Additions and advancements are constantly being made to the SOAR Telescope, which is very much a work in progress.
“We have the basic telescope operating and we’re adding more instruments,” Baldwin said.
“There’s a whole string of them being added because this is just the beginning of the telescope’s life.”
When Kennedy uses the telescope, she conducts with only the assistance of the telescope operators in Chile.
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A schedule assigning viewing nights to the four partners is written several months in advance and is non-negotiable, even if sky conditions are poor, Baldwin said.
MSU is building a $2 million infrared imager called the “Spartan Infrared Camera,” in collaboration with Brazil. The project will cost MSU an additional $1 million in general and donor funds. Funding for the project also has been provided by the National Science Foundation and Brazil, according to the MSU Web site.
Once completed, the camera will be mounted to the SOAR Telescope to capture sharp images of the light the telescope takes in, according to the Web site.
Stargazing for everyone
The Observatory offers to the public a unique opportunity to experience the cosmos without leaving campus.
“I’m usually involved in observatory nights and set up some of the telescopes,” French said. “The Observatory is open one weekend a month and we have a 24-inch telescope — people can go up the steps and into the dome and look through the telescope.”
The telescope was originally paid for with grant money and has received recent funding from the National Science Foundation, said Charles Kuehn, an astrophysics doctoral student. It was commissioned in 1969 and has been in operation since 1970, according to the Observatory Web site.
The Observatory is open to the public from about 9:30-11 p.m., except during the winter (usually November-February).
“We typically try to have the observatory nights on weekends when the moon is in the sky,” French said.
When the moon is in its third quarter it is visible in the early morning, but when it’s in or near its first quarter, it’s visible in the late evening, when the observatory is open, he said.
Observatory open houses are staffed by about 6-8 people, mostly graduate students and a few professors, Kuehn said. During the open houses, graduate students are stationed outside of the Observatory with small telescopes positioned to view specific things like constellations, star clusters and other galaxies. The smaller telescopes positioned outside are all about 6-10 inches in diameter, French said.
There are several star clusters — small areas containing about 500,000 stars varying in size and formed from the same compnents — visible in Michigan right now, as well as Jupiter and its four largest moons, Saturn and its rings and occasionally a few of its moons, she said.
“We use the big telescope to see much more detail,” Kuehn said, “(to observe) other galaxies that are too faint to be seen with other smaller telescopes and are far too faint to be seen with the naked eye.”
The popularity of the open houses varies, Kuehn said, typically drawing about 50-70 people. A few years ago, when the local news was emphasizing the fact that Mars was closer to Earth than usual, the Observatory had about 250 visitors come, he said.
“We generally find that the public is very curious (about astronomy),” Kuehn said.
“You get a chance to see what you’ve seen in your textbooks or on TV for yourself. It’s really kind of surprising to people to see that these astronomical sights look just like they do in pictures,” French said.
The Observatory is mainly used for senior theses when it’s not open to the public, Kuehn said.
From November to February, when the Observatory is closed to the public, the facility is used to conduct undergraduate astronomy classes.
Because of summer weather conditions and visibility, Kuehn said the Observatory is used to view and study variable stars which teach astronomers about the evolution of stars.
