Latest / Star Trails: From Backyard Astronomy to Cosmic Wonder / Photon by Photon: A Journey Through Observatories

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Photon by Photon: A Journey Through Observatories · Star Trails: From Backyard Astronomy to Cosmic Wonder

0:07
Howdy Star Gazers and welcome to this episode
0:10
of Star Trails. My name is Drew and I'll be your
0:13
guide to the night sky for the week of April
0:15
the 5th through the 11th. This month we're going
0:19
to explore some of the scientific processes we
0:22
use as astronomers. We'll discuss how data is
0:26
collected and used. and how computers and programming
0:29
are part of that. And to kick off the month,
0:32
we have a different sort of show on tap for this
0:35
week. I'm going to interview the director of
0:38
a local observatory to spark our discussion on
0:42
visual astronomy. Later in the show, I'll discuss
0:45
some of the famous observatories around the world
0:48
and their discoveries. Also, we'll check in with
0:52
this week's sky. Whether you're tuning in from
0:55
the backyard or the balcony, I'm glad you're
0:57
here. So grab a comfortable spot under the night
1:00
sky and let's get started. Since Galileo created
1:06
his telescope in the early 1600s, the observatory,
1:11
that is a building containing a telescope, has
1:14
been one of the primary tools for studying the
1:17
night sky. Eventually, radio telescopes would
1:21
enter the picture, along with space telescopes
1:24
that far exceed the capabilities of their terrestrial
1:27
brethren. Even so, the classic domed observatory
1:32
is still what comes to mind for many of us when
1:35
we think of astronomy. As a kid who enjoyed stargazing,
1:40
my parents would often drive me past the Melton
1:43
Memorial Observatory on the campus of the University
1:46
of South Carolina in Columbia, in hopes of seeing
1:50
the telescope inside peeking out of the dome's
1:53
shutter. While I never spotted any astronomy
1:56
in progress, the observatory represented a long
1:59
-term goal for me. Eventually, I would attend
2:02
school here, and when I arrived that fall, The
2:06
first class I signed up for was astronomy. It
2:09
would be a few more months before I managed to
2:12
get into a lab class inside Melton. In November
2:16
of 1993, I finally entered the observatory and
2:20
a childhood dream was realized when I peered
2:23
at the moon through the main telescope, which
2:26
is painted in garnet red to match the university's
2:30
colors. Of course, reality doesn't always match
2:33
expectations. When I was a kid, I didn't really
2:37
understand how bad light pollution could be because
2:40
I didn't live in a major metropolitan area. Once
2:44
at school, I was disappointed to learn that we
2:46
weren't going to be peering deep into space because
2:50
light pollution here is quite severe. Yet Melton
2:54
Observatory still stands and, more importantly,
2:58
is still used today. Its classical architecture
3:02
is a nod to historic campus observatories dating
3:05
back hundreds of years. So I decided to contact
3:09
Melton's director and learn more about the nearly
3:13
100 -year -old observatory and how the community
3:16
uses it today. Here's my interview with director
3:20
Martin Bowers. Right now I'm in Melton Memorial
3:28
Observatory on the campus of the University of
3:30
South Carolina and I'm joined by Observatory
3:33
Director Martin Bowers. Welcome to the show.
3:36
Thanks for having me. Thanks for being on here.
3:39
So this observatory has been around for nearly
3:41
a century. What's the story behind how it was
3:43
built? Well, my understanding is that Dr. Melton
3:47
was the president of the university from 22 to
3:50
26 and he felt the need to have a real observatory
3:55
because at that time, they had a telescope, but
3:58
they'd have to set it up and put it away every
4:00
time they used it because they didn't have a
4:02
true observatory. And that's a lot of work. I
4:05
know as an amateur observer myself with my own
4:08
equipment, when I do imaging especially, that's
4:10
a lot of work. So we said, if we're going to
4:12
teach astronomy, we need a proper observatory.
4:15
But coming up with the money even 100 years ago
4:18
was a problem for a new building. So he convinced
4:20
a good friend and alumnus named Edwin Sibles
4:24
to donate the bulk of the money. And they built
4:27
this building and dedicated it in 1928. But unfortunately,
4:30
Dr. Melton had passed away before it was completed.
4:34
So Mr. Sibles dedicated it in memoriam of his
4:38
good friend, Dr. Melton. And that's why we call
4:40
it the Melton Memorial Observatory. Exactly.
4:43
So the question I'm sure everybody wants to know
4:46
is what kind of gear is in Melton? Well we still
4:50
have, my understanding is the original telescope
4:53
and mount, it's a 16 inch cassegrain, very long
4:57
focal length, I think its focal ratio is f16.
5:01
So it does really well on planets and craters
5:04
on the moon, but that's our primary scope. We
5:08
also have a number of portable telescopes. Usually
5:10
we set up a couple of Celestron C8s, eight -inch
5:14
Schmidt -Cassegrain as well. Okay. How did you
5:17
become the director of this observatory? Well,
5:19
I'm a member of the Midlands Astronomy Club.
5:24
I've been doing this now for eight years. And
5:27
so eight years ago, the club was contacted by
5:30
one of the astronomy professors who said, hey,
5:33
we need someone to serve as the director. And
5:36
so I applied for the job because it sounded fun.
5:41
So the university reached out to the club and
5:43
said, do you have anybody who could? Yes. Okay.
5:46
And there are several members of the club who
5:49
have served stints in this role before and they
5:53
were helpful at resources because I had to ask
5:55
them what was going on. So they were very useful
5:58
assets for me. I find Melton really interesting
6:01
because like a lot of universities years ago,
6:04
they would build their observatories right here
6:07
on the campus and we're in the middle of a major
6:10
metropolitan area. So clearly this isn't an ideal
6:13
place for an observatory, but what role does
6:17
a historic observatory like this play in the
6:20
community? Yeah, yeah. Our light pollution is
6:22
pretty dreadful. Just a few years ago, they upgraded
6:25
all the street lights on campus and used brighter
6:28
ones. Okay. They just made it worse. But we could
6:33
still see bright objects. It serves a role as
6:36
part of the science outreach. I mean, I think
6:38
that's why the university wanted to keep it going
6:41
with the public viewing sessions, which we hold
6:43
every clear Monday night. And we invite the public
6:47
and we get a lot of outsiders come in. And we
6:50
also get contacted throughout the year by different
6:53
schools and scouting groups and other organizations.
6:57
wanting a private tour, and so we do our best
7:01
to meet that need as well. Well, it's a beautiful
7:04
building. It looks like a classic observatory.
7:07
When you see it, it's very striking, and you
7:09
want to stop and know, hey, what goes on inside
7:11
of there. Yes, it is the best part of the fun.
7:14
It is a really cool old building. Often I'll
7:18
have students come through here and they say,
7:20
you know, I'm a senior. I've walked by this building
7:22
for four years. I thought it was just some kind
7:25
of monument. I didn't know it was in use. Right,
7:28
right. You know, and the other interesting thing
7:30
is this being an urban observatory, it's not
7:33
even the only one of its kind within about a
7:36
two mile radius. If you go down the road a little
7:39
bit, the state museum has the Boeing observatory,
7:41
which is another really nice facility. in the
7:45
midst of light pollution. Yeah, yeah. They also
7:48
have an old telescope. They have an old Alvin
7:50
Clark refractor. And my understanding is it was
7:54
originally owned by Columbia University long
7:57
ago and had been mothballed for a long time.
8:00
And somehow they convinced them to donate it.
8:03
They received a donation of a lot of classic
8:07
old telescopes. It's really a really cool exhibit
8:09
that they have there. Right. And I know you mentioned
8:12
this before, but even though we are in this heavy
8:15
urban area, there are still things that are worth
8:18
looking at. I'm sure the moon, the planets, what
8:22
do people enjoy looking at even in these types
8:24
of urban environment? Well, of course we always
8:26
do planets. I think the most interesting is Saturn
8:29
is to watch people's reaction because one thing
8:31
I've learned, there are a lot of people who come
8:34
here and it's the first time they've ever looked
8:37
through a telescope. And I forget that sometimes
8:40
that there are people who've just never had that
8:42
opportunity. And when we had Saturn up, More
8:46
than one night there there students to say oh
8:49
wow you can see the rings right that can't be
8:53
real they didn't know that. you could do that,
8:57
that they thought you needed a space telescope
8:59
or some mountaintop massive instrument to see
9:02
the rings of Saturn. No, you can see it in a
9:04
small telescope and it's beautiful. Yeah, one
9:07
of my favorite stories from history is Galileo
9:10
building his own telescope and drawing Saturn
9:13
with rings. So even in those times, we've been
9:17
able to see that. But people don't realize that
9:19
today, do they? There's a lot of folks who haven't
9:22
had that opportunity to look through a telescope.
9:25
I think that's part of the purpose of the campus
9:28
for the arts and sciences is to educate people
9:32
about science, to promote scientific knowledge
9:36
and understanding. The universe is amazing. It's
9:38
beautiful. There's a lot to learn. There's a
9:41
lot we're still learning, and it's fun. It's
9:44
beautiful. Come have a look. What can people
9:46
expect when they come on a Monday night? Well,
9:48
so, of course, we just had a time zone change,
9:50
so that will move our our starting time back
9:53
to nine to 11, but we have a two hour viewing
9:55
window and, um, we always try to find at least
9:59
three different objects. So we'll put the big
10:02
scope on whatever's good right now. Jupiter is
10:05
good. So, uh, or sometimes we'll put it on the
10:08
moon. Right. And then we have two C eights that
10:11
we'll set up on two other objects. The Orion
10:14
Nebula is still up. So that's, that's worth a
10:16
look. You can see the trapezium and you can see
10:18
some of the nebula around it. Right. Um, but
10:21
we invite people to come up, have a look. I have
10:23
some great student assistants that help. run
10:26
some of the instruments. And we invite people
10:28
to have a look, discuss. Some people like to
10:30
stay and talk and they have questions and they
10:32
want to discuss it. We kind of touched on this
10:34
before when you were saying people looking at
10:36
Saturn, what sorts of reactions do you see from
10:39
people the first time they look through some
10:41
of these telescopes here? Well, you know, it's
10:44
funny because anyone who does imaging learns
10:47
to avoid the moon because when the moon's up,
10:50
it's like it lights up the sky, it makes it harder.
10:54
Craters on the moon are easy target, and they're
10:57
actually quite. pretty. And there are a lot of
10:59
folks, they look at craters on the moon, they're
11:01
just blown away. They had no idea. They thought
11:04
you had to be in orbit around the moon to see
11:06
something like that. And Saturn and Jupiter are
11:10
always beautiful as well. Some people are just
11:13
stunned. Some people said, that's not real. You've
11:16
got a sticker in there. You can't be looking
11:19
at it. And I have to say, no, you see that bright
11:21
light right there that looks like a bright star?
11:23
That's Saturn. You're looking at it. That's incredible.
11:26
You really do forget that people maybe don't
11:31
think about these things, and like you said,
11:33
they assume you have to have Hubble or Voyager
11:36
2 or something to see these places. Yeah. Since
11:39
the inception of Melton, have there been any
11:41
big research projects, big discoveries made here?
11:44
I don't know if they've had any discoveries with
11:47
data collected from here. I do know at one time
11:50
they've had different student projects. There
11:52
was a some kind of spectroscope that someone
11:55
made trying to get stellar spectra. I've worked
11:59
with some students doing special projects like
12:02
variable star study, building a light curve of
12:05
stars, but I don't know of any new discoveries
12:09
made from data here. I do know some of the faculty
12:13
are very actively involved in research and get
12:17
time on the Hubble or the Webb telescope as part
12:20
of their research projects. So there is active
12:23
research done by some of the faculty members,
12:26
but I'm not aware of any data taken from this
12:29
instrument that went into a study, but there
12:32
could have been. You kind of mentioned it just
12:34
then, you said some of the faculty out here are
12:36
using some remote. observing or Hubble or Webb
12:41
or, you know, Atacama, places like that. What
12:44
is the value of a hands -on, like in -person
12:48
facility like this today? You know, it's interesting.
12:51
I had this discussion with some of the professors
12:54
here, the astronomy professors, that professional
12:57
astronomers don't do hands -on because they just
13:01
submit a proposal. They get time and then someone
13:04
mails them a pointer to their data. Here's how
13:06
you download your data. But there is value in
13:09
hands -on. I think that's still useful. It's
13:13
helpful to understand how the sky moves, how
13:18
objects move within it, how the telescope works
13:22
and to learn your way around the sky. And the
13:26
best way to do that is to get down and dirty,
13:28
get your hands on a scope and start pointing
13:30
it and through it. I think there's still value
13:33
in that, and certainly from a hobbyist's point
13:37
of view, just appreciating the beauty and wonder
13:40
of the sky and the objects in it. Getting personally
13:44
involved by actually operating a telescope is
13:48
a part of that. It helps you become connected
13:52
to it. If someone listening wants to start observing,
13:56
what should they do? You know, I get that question
13:59
a lot because especially a common problem is
14:02
you get a parent who has a child who's very interested
14:05
in astronomy and they want to buy a telescope
14:08
for them. And the problem is if you go too cheap,
14:12
you'll get an instrument that's so frustrating
14:14
to use, you'll just crush the joy out of your
14:17
budding young scientists there. And yet you don't
14:20
want to spend a lot of money on a scope that
14:22
maybe they'll use a few times and then lose interest.
14:25
So the best advice is join the local astronomy
14:30
club. Locally the Midlands astronomy club is
14:33
here in Columbia. There you'll meet a bunch of
14:37
enthusiasts who are very knowledgeable users
14:40
with a lot of telescopes. You can go to their
14:43
star parties, look through their equipment and
14:46
get an idea of what how much things cost, how
14:49
they work, what you think might be useful for
14:51
you. Some people never even buy their own telescope.
14:54
They just go to the club and look through the
14:56
club scopes and come to our Melton Monday night
14:59
public viewing events. And we'll show you some
15:02
views through scopes and talk to you about it.
15:04
There are a lot of options. It all depends on
15:06
how much money you're willing to spend. And like
15:09
I say, the best way is to get into it with the
15:12
club and, or come to our meetings. You spend
15:15
a lot of time helping people out here and introducing
15:18
them to the universe. What do you think astronomy
15:20
does? To the way people see their place in the
15:24
in the world Well, you know it it's funny you
15:28
were talking about, you know Galileo and in the
15:30
early days of telescopes Today what we know is
15:34
the the universe is vastly stupefying Lee immense.
15:40
Yes much bigger in its extent than our predecessors
15:46
could have possibly imagined. And we're learning
15:48
it's filled with amazing things and they're beautiful.
15:53
And it's part of the wonder to understand just
15:56
how enormous, incredibly enormously huge the
16:01
universe is and how beautiful it is and all the
16:05
things we're still learning about it. That's
16:07
part of the joy and wonder of I mean, that's
16:11
that's why it's been a hobby for me is it's exciting.
16:14
It's beautiful. And it's fun. And so that's why
16:19
I do it. And that's what I'd like to share with
16:23
our guests. Hey, look at something amazing. I
16:26
love that. Martin, thanks so much for being on
16:29
the show. This has been enlightening and it's
16:31
always a pleasure to come visit Melton. You're
16:33
welcome any time. You and your listeners to come
16:36
to the Melton Observatory on a clear Monday night.
16:39
We post our status every Monday morning on the
16:42
Melton Facebook page. Okay. Going to be open
16:44
or not based on the weather or any other events
16:47
going on. Appreciate it. Thank you. Yes, sir.
16:53
I'd like to thank Martin for giving us that interview,
16:57
and I'll include links to Melton in the show
16:59
notes if you happen to find yourself in Columbia,
17:02
South Carolina on a Monday evening and want to
17:05
come visit. After a quick break, I'll be back
17:10
to discuss some historic observatories and their
17:13
discoveries, and we'll check in with this week's
17:16
night sky. Stay with us. Welcome back. Before
17:32
we had massive domes perched on mountaintops,
17:36
before we had radio dishes the size of stadiums,
17:39
and before we sent telescopes into orbit, astronomy
17:43
was much simpler, and a much more personal endeavor.
17:48
In 1609, Galileo Galilei pointed a small handmade
17:52
telescope toward the night sky, and everything
17:56
changed. He saw mountains on the moon, proving
17:59
it wasn't a perfect celestial sphere. He discovered
18:03
four moons orbiting Jupiter, showing that not
18:06
everything revolved around the Earth. And he
18:09
discovered the phases of Venus, which supported
18:13
the idea that planets orbit the Sun. With a device
18:16
no more powerful than a modern pair of binoculars,
18:20
Galileo helped overturn centuries of belief.
18:24
And for a long time, astronomy stayed close to
18:27
that spirit. small telescopes, individual observers,
18:31
and handwritten notes and sketches. But as our
18:35
questions about the universe grew bigger, our
18:37
tools had to grow with them. By the 17th and
18:40
18th centuries, dedicated observatories began
18:43
to appear. Places like Paris Observatory and
18:48
Royal Observatory Greenwich. Astronomers used
18:51
them to map the sky, track planetary motion,
18:55
and even define time itself. The line running
18:59
through Greenwich became the prime meridian,
19:02
the reference point for global navigation. And
19:05
as telescopes improved, observatories became
19:08
more ambitious. Bigger lenses and larger mirrors.
19:12
Eventually, these quiet domes would reshape our
19:16
understanding of the cosmos. Let's take a quick
19:19
tour of a few of the heavy hitters. High above
19:23
Los Angeles sits Mount Wilson Observatory, and
19:26
this place fundamentally changed how we see the
19:29
universe. In the 1920s, astronomer Edwin Hubble
19:33
used the 100 -inch Hooker telescope here to prove
19:37
that spiral nebula weren't clouds inside our
19:41
galaxy. They were entire galaxies of their own.
19:45
That one discovery expanded the universe overnight,
19:49
and it didn't stop there. Hubble also discovered
19:53
that galaxies are moving away from us, which
19:56
means the universe is expanding. That realization
20:00
is the foundation of modern cosmology. A few
20:04
decades later, just down the road, Palomar Observatory
20:08
took things even further. Its 200 -inch HAIL
20:12
telescope was, for a long time, the most powerful
20:16
telescope on Earth. Palomar helped map the large
20:20
-scale structure of the universe, contributed
20:22
to the discovery of quasars, those bright distant
20:26
objects powered by supermassive black holes,
20:29
and played a role in refining how we measure
20:32
cosmic distances. For much of the 20th century,
20:36
if something big was discovered in astronomy,
20:39
there's a good chance Palomar was involved. On
20:42
the summit of a dormant volcano in Hawaii sits
20:45
one of the best observing sites on Earth, Mauna
20:49
Kea Observatories. This is home to some of the
20:52
most advanced telescopes ever built, including
20:55
the Keck Observatory. From here, astronomers
20:59
have studied the atmospheres of distant exoplanets,
21:03
measured the motion of stars orbiting the black
21:05
hole at the center of our galaxy, and pushed
21:08
deeper into the early universe than ever before.
21:11
It's one of the places where modern astronomy
21:14
is happening right now. And then we left Earth
21:18
entirely. The Hubble Space Telescope removed
21:22
the atmosphere from the equation. Hubble gave
21:25
us the deep field images, revealing thousands
21:28
of galaxies in what looked like empty patches
21:31
of sky. It helped determine the age of the universe,
21:35
refined the expansion rate, and gave us some
21:38
of the most iconic images ever taken. For many
21:41
people, Hubble made the universe feel real. High
21:46
in the Atacama Desert, one of the driest places
21:49
on Earth, sits Paranal Observatory. This is home
21:53
to the Very Large Telescope, operated by the
21:57
European Southern Observatory. Here, astronomers
22:00
combine multiple telescopes to act like one giant
22:04
instrument, allowing them to peer deeper into
22:07
space with precision. From Paranol, we've studied
22:11
distant galaxies, explored the structure of the
22:13
Milky Way, and even helped image exoplanets around
22:17
other stars. All the observatories we've mentioned
22:21
in this episode are for visual astronomy, stargazing,
22:25
photon by photon. We'll get into radio astronomy
22:29
and other methods of data collection later this
22:32
month. This week the moon starts off bright as
22:42
a waning gibbous washing out much of the sky
22:46
early on But night by night it rises later and
22:49
fades giving us gradually darker skies as the
22:53
week goes on In the evening, you can't miss Venus
22:57
blazing in the western sky after sunset. It's
23:00
the brightest object out there by far Jupiter
23:03
is still hanging on in the southwest almost directly
23:07
overhead If you're up before sunrise, Mercury,
23:11
Mars, and Saturn are in a tidy line, but they're
23:14
sitting very low on the horizon and clustered
23:17
near the morning sun, so they'll be a bit of
23:20
a challenge. Overhead, we're now fully in the
23:23
spring sky. Leo is prominent, with its bright
23:26
star, Regulus, while Virgo begins to rise later
23:30
in the evening. Cancer sits between them, faint,
23:34
but home to one of the best binocular targets
23:36
in the sky. That's the Beehive Cluster, also
23:39
known as Messier 44, an excellent target this
23:43
week, especially with the bright moon early on.
23:47
You can also try for the Globular Cluster M3,
23:50
and later in the week, as skies improve, galaxies
23:53
like M81, M82, and even the Whirlpool Galaxy
23:58
M51 come into reach. And there's a bit of a wild
24:03
card this week, a potential comet. C2026A1 may
24:10
be visible low in the western sky just after
24:13
sunset. This one is really dim right now at magnitude
24:17
13 .6. If it survives its journey around the
24:21
sun, it could brighten dramatically. Check an
24:24
app like Stellarium for the exact location. We'll
24:28
be keeping an eye on it in the coming weeks.
24:31
As I record this, the crew of Artemis II has
24:33
been in space for nearly 24 hours, on a journey
24:37
around the moon and back. Humanities return to
24:40
deep space after more than half a century. While
24:43
we observe the stars from here on Earth, they're
24:46
out there experiencing it directly. For most
24:49
of us, astronomy begins by looking up, but it
24:53
doesn't always end there. That's going to do
25:01
it for this week. If you found this episode interesting,
25:04
please share it with a friend who might enjoy
25:06
it. The easiest way to do that is by sending
25:09
folks to our website, StarTrails .Show. And if
25:13
you'd like to support the show, use the link
25:16
on the site to buy me a coffee. That really helps.
25:19
Be sure to follow Star Trails on Blue Sky and
25:22
YouTube. Links are in the show notes. Until we
25:25
meet again beneath the stars, clear skies everyone.