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May 2001 Meeting
The Optical Society of San Diego and the evening's host,
Mary Howland, invite you to a special SATURDAY
meeting at the Mt. Laguna Observatory. We welcome Jerry Schad, Professor
and Chair of the Mesa College Department of Physical Science, who
will present a slide show of astronomical and sky photographs from
his Sky Photo collection.
Mount Laguna Observatory Tour 2001
On the night of May 12th, I joined the Optical Society of San Diego (OSSD) for a trip to the Mount Laguna Observatory (http://mintaka.sdsu.edu/tour/vis.html). The Observatory is located 50 miles east of downtown San Diego in the Cleveland National Forest at a site (6100') which provides world class sky viewing conditions. (Seeing is generally less than two arcseconds and frequently less than one arcsecond.) The observatory is run by San Diego State University and the University of Illinois. OSSD host Mary Howland greeted each of us as we arrived and we were treated to a catered dinner of BBQ chicken and a green salad from Oscars Restaurant. It was a pleasant meal at the visitors center, the threat of afternoon showers had vanished and we enjoyed a nice mild late afternoon. After dinner, the Mount Laguna Observatory Director, Dr. Paul Etzel, gave us a tour of some of the facility. We had a chance to see the 40 inch telescope (http://mintaka.sdsu.edu/facilities/40_in_scope.html) with all the instrumentation and associated equipment, (two CCD cameras, Cassegrain spectrograph, Near IR camera, automated photometer, coude bench spectrograph, and grism spectrograph). Paul described the efforts to upgrade the system with some newer spectrographs and a high bandwidth fiber optic connection to the control room computers. He also mentioned the recent completion of the high bandwidth data link (45Mbps) as part of the High Performance Wireless Research Education Network (HPWREN). (http://hpwren.ucsd.edu) We also had a chance to see the observatory's maintenance facility where much of the scientific equipment is built or maintained. Here, Paul was proud to show off a recent addition of a vacuum chamber used in re-aluminizing the mirrors of the telescopes. The vacuum system is capable of handling a 40 inch mirror. It has a CTI cryogenic high vacuum pump and associated hardware and electronics for depositing Aluminum coatings.
Jerry Schad, the nights' featured speaker, first gave a slide show describing many of his night sky photos. We saw much of his work including photos of sunsets, greenflashes, moonrises over the city, planet conjunctions, and recent comets, Yakatori and Hale-Bopp. He also included some legacy photos of Halley's Comet and planet conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn that were twenty years old. These 'grand conjunctions' are a good reference point for different stages of ones life. The evolution in the quality of film was demonstrated with some of these older photos. Using the same apertures and lenses, but using modern films, Jerry demonstrated the difference in results of like shots of constellations and planet groupings. The modern Fuji Ektachrome P-1600 film pushed to 3200 or higher gives fantastic results in the hands of a skilled photographer.
Some of the most striking shots were those that combined both the sky scene with terrestrial foregrounds. Photos of comets passing close to the pole star, taken through a 'window' in a cave at the Mud Hills stood out as really clever. There was also an all night exposure of circumpolar stars reflected in a High Sierra lake. The surface of the lake showed nary a ripple and seemed as smooth as glass! You didn't need to be an optician, to appreciate the beauty of the image. Other impressive shots included a multi-exposure of the eclipsing moon, and planet groupings with a moonlit foreground. Many of these images can be see at www.skyphoto.com . By the end of the slide show, night had almost descended on the Observatory. We all moved out to the 21 inch Buller telescope (http://mintaka.sdsu.edu/tour/21_inside.html) used for visitors, just as the last bit of orange was leaving the western sky. Once assembled, Jerry gave a quick naked eye tour of the brighter objects and then went right to work getting the Buller scope sighted on Jupiter. We all had a good look at this planet and its associated moons. A surprise sighting of Mercury, just to the lower right of Jupiter, made for a nice pairing in the evening twilight. Both were setting quickly with Taurus. As the night progressed, Jerry gave a tour of many of the constellations using a high powered flashlight to point out the different stars that make up each pattern. We saw Gemini with the stars Castor and Pollux, and the star Arcturus in Bootes. As we moved on to Cancer we were able to see the star cluster in the center of this zodiacal constellation, and further east we came to Leo (the lion). Overhead we could see Coma Berenices (Hair of Queen Berenice) and Corona Borealis (Northern Crown). Over the course of the night, we were all able to view many different objects, faint nebulosities, globular star clusters, and galaxies, with the last being a look at M81 and M82. These galaxies are over 10 thousand light-years away. Thus, the photons that fell on our eyes this night had been traveling through space for over 10 thousand years. Wow! I think that all the guests this night had a great time and were very appreciative of the efforts of Jerry Schad and the hospitality of Paul Etezl. Speaking for myself, I really enjoyed the whole program. My first introduction to optics was through the use of a telescope as young boy, and I have had the bug ever since. Getting up to the cool, sweet mountain air, and gazing upon the familiar stars, is a lot like a visit home. It's a good place to be! Speaker: Jerry Schad is a full-time community college professor of physical science and astronomy. He is Professor and Chair of the Mesa College Department of Physical Science and has been photographing the sky since 1965. Jerry's astronomical photographs have been widely published nationally and overseas. (www.skyphoto.com) The first published was a planetary-conjunction sequence which appeared in Sky and Telescope magazine in 1966. His recent photo credits include the cover of the April 7, 1997 issue of US News and World Report, Newsweek, Time, Reader's Digest, Scientific American, Discover, Sky and Telescope, Astronomy, and ABC News (Discovery Channel). Schad has authored 12 books on subjects as diverse as physical science, natural history, running, hiking, (Afoot and Afield in San Diego County) and bicycling, and he has written more than 500 articles and columns on the same subjects for regional and national publications, including the San Diego Reader.
MLO Host: Dr Paul Etzel; Mount Laguna Observatory Director
(http://mintaka.sdsu.edu/faculty/etzel/)
Some Astronomical Links San Diego State University Astronomy
Department Mt Laguna Observatory Palomar Observatory Mount Wilson Observatory San Diego Astronomy Association Professor Andy Young's Green Flash
site Rubin H. Fleet Science Center Sky and Telescope Magazine San Diego Night Skies by Jerry Schad
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OSSD
host, Mary Howland, introduced speaker Jerry Schad.|
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