When the Science and Math building's new wing opened in 2000, it offered a special bonus to UMM: a state-of-the-art observatory that provides students and the Morris community a chance to peer into space for a glimpse of the universe and its many marvels.

Physics faculty member Kristin Kearns used the observatory for her spring course, Stars and Galaxies.   Her colleague Gordon McIntosh uses the facilities in the fall for his Solar Systems course.   In addition, Kristin opens up the observatory several times per semester for public observing.

"The limiting factor always on a public observing night is the weather," Kristin admits.   "Sometimes we can't make the call on whether we can open up for observation until the last half hour before a viewing.   We usually chose a Friday night so we can offer a Saturday rain date if needed."

One Friday night, Kristin was expecting a Girl Scout troop to show up for a viewing at 7:00 pm.   The day began cloudy, then the skies cleared and then it was back to clouds again.   Finally, at 6:30, Kristin called the troop leaders, who lived west of Morris.   With skies clear in their town, Kristin was willing to bet that the same opening would make its way to Morris and so, the group came for a chance to see the Moon and Jupiter at twilight.  

"They could see surface features and Jupiter's moons, which kids think is pretty cool," Kristin recalls. "They can see craters on the moon in great detail, and then get a visceral feel for the great distance of Jupiter by looking at the tiny points of light that are its largest moons."

UMM's observatory features a telescope that Kristin describes as the most popular medium-sized model.   The Meade LX200 has a 16" mirror and computerized pointing and tracking.

She is training students to run the telescope during public observation nights.   They learn how to open the observation dome and position the telescope for operation.   The tricky part of the learning curve lies in how to work with the telescope's computer to hone in on faint targets.

"The fantasy with computer-guided telescopes is that the computer will do all the work, but the computer is only as good as the advice it gets from a human," Kristin explains.

  "First, you point the telescope at a bright star like Vega. You tell the computer 'I'm at Vega.' You do this with three bright starts to calibrate the computer so that it can help you find fainter, more difficult objects."

Along with teaching students the fine points of using the observatory's telescope, Kristin teaches them how to plan and execute a successful evening of viewing with the public.   They need to know the answers to the most commonly asked questions that come up during observations; what she refers to as the "top 20."   Assistants also learn how to plan a public viewing based on knowing how the moon's phase will affect the ability to see other celestial objects clearly.  

Visitors are often amazed when they watch an assistant cover 90% of the telescope's opening with the lens cap and find they can still see the full moon quite clearly through the eyepiece.

"If the moon is full, it affects what else can be seen," she says.   "Of course, then we can view the moon itself. Unless the moon's a sliver, it's really bright when viewed in the telescope because all that light's being funneled to your eyeball.   When the moon's full, it can actually be easier to look at during the day, when your eyes are not adjusted for darkness."

Kristin prefers to host small groups for viewings and finds that 10-15 people work best for an evening of stargazing.   Dorm floor viewing nights can bring in a few more observers.   She has also managed to accommodate 60-70 people on big public viewing nights like the ones offered during last year's jazz fest and homecoming observation nights.

People who come to viewings at the observatory like the outdoors feel it has when the dome is open.   "It's dark and cold; like going camping with binoculars and looking up at the sky--only much better," she laughs.

One of the "top 20" questions that inevitably comes up when viewing the moon is whether an observer can see the U.S. flag that was left up on the moon by the first astronauts who landed there.

"Everyone who looks at the moon through our telescope is astounded by the clarity.   They wonder if they might be able to see the flag, but it's much too small," she says.  

"I like showing kids the moon because you can tell when they really do see it," Kristin adds.   "Sometimes kids will say they can see something even when they can't because they don't want others to think they can't do it.   But if they're looking at the moon, you can see it reflected in their eye as they look into the telescope."

Saturn is the next most popular celestial object to view during observations because of the rings.   Kristin was surprised at the number of children who, upon view Saturn, comment that it looks like a sticker.   "I think this is because most of them have seen the image of Saturn on a sticker at some point," she postulates.

Kristin has a few tricks up her sleeve that she teaches to students who help out on public observation nights.   Children get fidgety waiting their turn during a viewing.   They like to get involved with the mechanics of the observatory and relish the chance at helping to move the dome or telescope into a new position. She also uses the observatory's unusual acoustics to demonstrate simple lessons in the physics of sound.  

"Kids think it's cool when they find out that one person in the round room can clearly hear another person barely whispering at the other side of the room," she says. Tricks like this can keep kids quiet for a nice long time!

Observatory sessions with students involved in research are quite different from public viewing nights.   Students like Kristin's TA, Ryan Kalmoe, use specially designed cameras mounted on the telescope to gather scientific data.   The objects they look for are not always as visually dramatic as the moon or a nearby planet, and the telescope often points at the same speck of light for hours at a time.

"The imaging project is a work in progress," Kristin notes.   "It's not an 'off-the-shelf' system, so we are slowly figuring out how to locate targets efficiently, keep the camera steady during long exposures and calibrate the images so they can be interpreted in a quantitative way.   Murphy's Law applies: anything that can go wrong will, so we tackle each problem as it arises."

Kristin hopes to eventually have a reliable system that can be used to monitor variable stars and the occasional fading supernova.

Just as important, she hopes to train more stargazers to help out at the increasingly popular public observations.   "The observatory is getting good use with more people coming on public nights.   We're always looking for more observers interested in being trained to run the tours," she says.

For now, anyone--including UMM alumni--can find out when to come for a star-filled night by checking for the observation schedule at the Physics Discipline's observatory webpage.

"We definitely want all people to come on the public nights," Kristin emphasizes.   "Just check at the website to find out what's happening with the weather."

Gordon McIntosh is another physics professor at UMM who uses the observatory in the courses he teaches. His Light and Color class takes a trip to the observatory to see a good example of an optical system complete with mirror, eyepiece and magnification.  

In his Solar Systems class, students in lab first make their own small telescopes, then go to the observatory to see the big mirror and lens used there. "A gasp is normal when they see the Moon, Saturn and Jupiter," says Gordon.

"I explain to students that we are repeating history.   Just like Galileo with his first telescope, we see the features of our own moon.   We see Jupiter and its 4 largest moons. He also saw the rings of Saturn, but didn't know yet what he was observing."

At one time, the Solar Systems and Stars & Galaxies were combined in one UMM course.   Gordon remembers that there finally came a time when it was necessary to split the course in two to adequately cover all of the material it contained.

"We have so much more visual information now from Mars, Jupiter and Saturn," he notes.   "I had developed the labs for the solar systems so I stayed with that.   The other course Kristin teaches delves into galaxies, stars and cosmology."

Fortunately, UMM's observatory gives students who are interested in these topics the opportunity to see what they are learning about for themselves.

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  The image above of the M51 spiral galaxy was taken with UMM's 16" telescope, with no color filters. Below is a color image of the same galaxy taken by a 14" telescope combines digital camera exposures totaling 3 hours and 42 minutes

Below are more spectacular color photos of galaxies, courtesy of the Hubble spacecraft. We couldn't resist filling our column space with such cool space images!