Kitt Peak Observatory

(Charles and Carrie) Last Saturday (May 3) we spent over 5 hours at Kitt Peak Observatory for their Nightly Observing Program. We had a fantastic time! We made it to the Observatory at 5:30 pm and looked at the exhibits at the visitor's center. At 6 we ate a turkey sandwich boxed dinner. After dinner the fun really began! We were introduced to features of the Observatory, taught how to read star charts, learned how to focus binoculars the correct way, and given our very own red light. You can't use any white lights after the sun goes down, or the images captured from the telescopes could possibly be messed up. Because we couldn't use white lights, we couldn't take flash pictures after dark and we had to drive one mile down the mountain (after the program was over) without our headlights! That was an adventure!

We got to watch the sun set over the desert. Then we spent time looking at the night sky through the binoculars and even saw a few shooting stars! Then we were divided into groups of 12 and taken to different telescopes to look more things in our universe. Looking through the telescopes was the highlight of the evening!







The next two pictures are of a telescope that can be operated through the Web.




The triangular structure is used for viewing the sun. Alot of time on Kitt Peak is spent researching the sun.



Sunset over the desert.




The first 3 pictures are of constellations we viewed through binoculars. The rest were viewed through a 16 inch telescope. Granted what we saw wasn't as clear as these pictures because we were looking through the earth's fuzzy atmosphere. But when we saw Saturn, everyone in our group thought it was a picture taped to the telescope. That is how clear Saturn was to us! We were able to see the rings and 4 of Saturns' moons.


Castor: This binary system is a reflection of the constellation in which its resides- Gemini, the Twins! These two stars of similar brightness and color are relatively easy to discern through a modest telescope under steady skies.



Coma Berenices: "Berenice's Hair," a giant Y-shaped open star cluster. It is only 100 lightyears away and appears a bit east of Leo.



M44: The "Beehive Cluster." A large, bright, diffuse open star cluster containing about 400 stars. It lies fairly close at a distance of almost 600 lightyears away. Another nickname: "Praesepe."



M5: A bright, large globular cluster, 30,000 lightyears away. "This superb object is a noble mass, refreshing to the senses after searching for fainter objects." - Admiral Smyth, 1838.


NGC 3242: The "Ghost of Jupiter." A shroud of gas puffed off by a dying star, a few thousand lightyears away. The gas is illuminated by the collapsed, hot, blue core (a white dwarf).



M51: The Whirlpool Galaxy. This galaxy gets its name from its bright and prominent spiral arms. It lies at a distance of 38 million ly. It also has a smaller, companion galaxy (NGC 5195). The two galaxies are in the process of a massive collision in space.



M82: This lumpy streak of an irregular galaxy is seven million lightyears away, and perhaps 30,000 lightyears across. There are vast gas clouds here, where suns are being born at an incredible rate.



Saturn, the second-largest planet in the Solar System, is known for its showy but thin rings made of ice chunks as small as dust and as large as buildings. Its largest moon, Titan, has an atmosphere and hydrocarbon lakes; at least 51 smaller moons orbit Saturn.


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