Photos: UH Hilo astronomy students take spectacular pictures of night sky
At recent observing sessions on Maunakea, students studied a comet, measured different aspects of Jupiter, and studied properties of galaxies—and the images are spectacular.
Click thumbnails for full size.
By Susan Enright/UH Hilo Stories.
Astronomy students at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo are taking spectacular photos this semester of comet Catalina, Jupiter, Orion Nebula and more. The students trek up Maunakea to work with the telescopes under a gorgeous starry sky.
The astronomy majors are taking the observational astronomy lab with R. Pierre Martin, assistant professor of astronomy and UH Hilo’s observatory director. This semester Martin has 12 students in the lab (ASTR250L), which is a companion lab to the course Observational Astronomy (ASTR250).
In the lab, students use and characterize astronomical instruments (telescopes, detectors, and spectrographs), and do astronomical observations such as imaging and acquiring spectroscopic data. The students learn all of these different techniques in the context of planetary, stellar and extragalactic astrophysics.
“The main goal for the course is to introduce students to modern astronomy techniques using small-aperture telescopes,” says Martin. “Although very modest in comparison to large telescopes used for most of astronomical research programs today, techniques like photometry and spectroscopy can be taught on smaller telescopes.”
The lab
The first experiment of the lab helps students become familiar with the equipment. “This semester the group took some very nice pictures of the sky, some quite spectacular in fact,” says Martin.
The second observing session saw one team studying a comet, another one measuring different aspects of Jupiter by obtaining very nice images with a specialized camera, and the third team studied some properties of galaxies.
UH Hilo’s astronomy department has a suite of small telescopes, 9.25″ in diameter, but very well equipped for wide-field and deep field astrophotography, planetary imaging and spectroscopy.
“We also aim at teaching the typical steps to conduct observational programs,” Martin says. “We do one experiment per month and, with some coaching by myself, each team of four is responsible for deciding which experiment they want to conduct, which object or objects they want to observe, and how.”
In other words, teams must prepare a plan in advance on how they will conduct the observations.
“Then we go observing,” says the professor.
The class deploys a suite of telescopes near the Maunakea Visitor Information Center and conducts observing for roughly six or seven hours in a row. Martin says this is hard work since setting up and dissembling the equipment is a complex procedure with many steps to be followed. Also, it’s cold on the mountain and students have to be thinking on their feet while enduring an often harsh environment.
Students control the telescopes and instruments through laptop computers and a suite of software for astronomy.
After an observation session, each team spends the next two weeks analyzing the data and writing a detail report.
Each month, each team conducts a different experiment with a different setup so at the end of the semester, all basic techniques have been covered.
“Another important objective for the lab is teamwork,” points out Martin. “This is a key concept in modern management and how many corporations function today. As the instructor, I pay close attention to how students work together, how they share the tasks, how they write the reports, etcetera. Each team member has to be a contributor somehow. So far, this has worked really well.”
Next month, some experiments with spectroscopy on nebulae are planned and also measuring the Doppler shift of some galaxies. The last experiment is completely open for now.
UH Hilo Observatory
When the astronomy department has its refurbished observatory—hopefully next year—it will be part of this class as well, as a first step toward observing with a bigger, professional-class observatory. The university is in the process of rebuilding the UH Hilo observatory with a modern 0.7-m telescope, a dome, and a suite of new instruments. Vendors have all been selected through a bidding process and procurement is ongoing.
“We hope to have received everything by the end of this year or early 2017,” explains Martin. “We have identified some options for a site—none on Maunakea—and depending on resources, we hope to implement the observatory as soon as possible. It will be operated remotely and robotically—automated observing—and it will be used for labs, research projects, outreach, and collaborations with other schools.
“I believe that providing these different steps in observational astronomy from small-aperture telescopes to medium size ones to much larger telescopes, is a unique training program, not really offered anywhere else,” says Martin. “Learning these techniques from the ground-up is very valuable for our students pursuing a career in astronomy at the graduate school level, or as support staff for astronomical facilities.”
Visit the Department of Astronomy website for more information about the program.
Story by Susan Enright, public information specialist for the Office of the Chancellor and editor of UH Hilo Stories. She received her bachelor of arts in English and certificate in women’s studies from UH Hilo.
