Tag Archives: telescope

Catching Rays

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As spring quickly approaches and being outside is becoming more and more inviting, we Public Observatory staff continue to enjoy spending time outside with our portable telescopes.  Every sunny day between 12:30 p.m. and 2 p.m., except for Mondays, we invite visitors near the Independence Avenue entrance to take a look at the sun through our specially equipped telescopes.

Observing

The Sun is approaching the active portion of its 11-year cycle, so visitors these days are now more likely to catch a glimpse of an interesting feature on the surface of the Sun.  Many visitors have been able to observe dark sunspot groups in our white light telescope, or spy an interesting prominence in the sun’s atmosphere through the telescope equipped with a hydrogen alpha filter.  However, the sunspots eventually move out of view and the prominences stop being quite so, well, prominent.

Luckily, there is a way to preserve these fleeting features so that all visitors will get a chance to see them regardless of how the sun chooses to behave that day. We have started taking pictures of the Sun’s interesting features through our different telescopes.  Here are those images for your viewing pleasure!

Sun

Here is an image of the Sun that was taken right here at the Museum on February 18th. In order to capture this image, we used a camera attached to our hydrogen alpha telescope. This telescope reveals the Sun’s chromosphere, filtering out all light except the red light given off by excited hydrogen atoms.  This image shows the two large prominences that appeared on the Sun that day. You can also see some surface texture on the Sun, which is called granulation. If you were to look through our hydrogen alpha telescope, this is pretty much exactly what you’d be able to see!

Progresssion

We took pictures later on in the day to see how the prominence changed, and could take pictures the next day as well. Over time, this loop prominence became twisted before disappearing from our view.

Sun

We took this picture of the Sun’s chromosphere with our Calcium-K telescope on March 4th. The Calcium K telescope filters out all but the purple light coming from excited Calcium atoms in the Sun’s atmosphere. You might notice a few brighter spots on the Sun’s surface, especially near the top right. These are hotter areas on the Sun called plages (pronounced like you’re saying “blah” except with a p).

Super Prom

We took this image of a super-prominence in the chromosphere of the Sun using our hydrogen-alpha telescope on March 17th.  This prominence is truly gigantic; it’s about 5 earths tall 22 earths long!

While these pictures are pretty great, nothing quite compares to seeing the sun live through a telescope. It’s always exciting to see what the Sun is up to on any given day. We’re outside the Museum every sunny day except for Monday between 12:30 p.m. and 2 p.m., so stop by and catch a few rays!

Erin Braswell is an Astronomy Educator at the National Air and Space Museum

Dome In A Day: Progress on the Public Observatory Project

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The Public Observatory Project (POP) is nearer to completion.  We are in the process of installing a large professional Boller & Chivens telescope in a 22-foot dome that will be available for four hours each day (weather permitting) to view the Sun, Moon and planets from the east terrace of the Museum. POP will be available for casual observing and for school and special interest groups. It will also be the Museum’s nerve center for the International Year of Astronomy throughout the rest of 2009 and well into 2010.

Over the past two weeks many people have devoted many many hours to making the Public Observatory Project (POP) closer to being ready for the public.  Once the rim of the foundation had been cast, Andy, Katie and John used both GPS and a simple shadow gnomon to determine the north-south alignment, marking the line on the rim of the foundation.  Then, a concrete pad was poured and leveled, followed by thick pads of Sorbothane, then a 6 x 6 foot iron plate, and finally the sole plate, tilted 3.6 degrees to the north to accommodate the latitude difference between Harvard, Massachusetts, the original home of the Boller & Chivens telescope, and Washington, D.C.  Larry and Ted continued to work on modernizing and ruggedizing the electronic relay system for the telescope, the pier was poured and trimmed, and finally, this week, assembly started.

The dome gore sections were brought to the terrace, as well as the walls, with the help of Joe Deregt, who came all the way from Australia to lead the charge.  The dome was assembled, then the walls went up.  Finally, yesterday, the 60-ton crane arrived, the pedestal was fitted to the pier base, and, by noon, the dome was lifted into place, carefully fitted by adjusting the base, and finally, after testing dome rotation (smooth!) the walls were secured to the foundation rim. At the end of the day, Frank, Stephanie, Joe and David were treated to dinner by curators from the Division of Space History!

More background on this project is provided in a previous blog post.

Dr. David DeVorkin is curator of the History of Astronomy in the Space History Division of the National Air and Space Museum.

International Year of Astronomy Public Observatory Project at The National Air and Space Museum

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2009 is the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s use of a telescope to examine the Moon, Venus, Jupiter and the Milky Way.  He probably wasn’t the first to do so, and of course he didn’t invent the telescope.  But he was the first to tell the world about what he saw, in terms everyone could understand and appreciate.  That is why the International Year of Astronomy has as its central goal giving as many people as possible the chance to look through a telescope and to enjoy the practice of doing astronomy, just like Galileo did, and better even!

The idea of such a celebration was born at a meeting of the International Astronomical Union. Once every three years, astronomers from all over the world meet in General Assembly.The last time was August 2006, in Prague. While some astronomers unceremoniously demoted Pluto at this meeting, others vowed to reaffirm that astronomy is for everybody, and is everywhere and anywhere you can see the sky,day or night. Some even proclaimed that they’d make it their mission to help anyone who wished to have the opportunity to peer through a telescope at a star, the Sun, Moon or a planet.

I was at that meeting,and thought it was a terrific idea. No, not demoting Pluto, but the IYA. I remember asking myself, how can The National Air and Space Museum contribute to this wonderful goal? The Washington Mall is not the best place to view the night sky, or the day sky for that matter. But it is where the people are – people of every shape, size, gender, persuasion. It’s one thing to get people to go where telescopes are, but its quite another to bring telescopes to the people. John Dobson and the San Francisco Sidewalk astronomers know that. So I took a tip from them and decided to build a public telescope on a Washington sidewalk, or as close as the Fine Arts Commission and the National Capitol Planning Commission would allow. Thus was born the Public Observatory Project at the National Air and Space Museum.

POP’s goal is to put a high-end fully professional telescope where the people are. These will be people who are not looking for a telescope to look through. No, these are the millions of people who come to Washington, to the Mall, to find themselves and their heritage. Encountering a telescope in the process, a big one in a visible white dome, one that can show you celestial sights of all sorts, will be a surprise for some, hopefully a delight to all. A modest value-added experience to what is a lifetime pilgrimage for many Americans.

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