Peter McLeodMs DuntonEnglish 124/13/15

Palomar Observatory SummaryMy senor project was to see what it is like to work as an astronomer. To that end,

I scheduled a visit to the Hale optical telescope at Palomar Observatory with the help of Dr. Andy Boden. The meeting was scheduled for February 6th, and I was assigned Steve Flanders to be my guide/mentor. Steve was a history major, and his use at the observatory was primarily that of a guide, as he knew a good deal about the history of the observatory itself. I arrived at 4:30 pm at a building called “The Monastery”. It possessed no monks. Rather, the building was a guest center and a location at which the various astronomers working at the time would gather to eat. It was named the monastery because the people who built it had read a book about a monastery during its construction. I was served a variety of Indian food (which sadly, I did not care for), and conversed with the astronomers present, attempting to get an idea about what the hale telescope would be used for that night. Afterwards, I went towards the observatory. First I explored the telescope room, taking in the massive scale of the Hale telescope. I also went up onto the balcony. Afterwards, I met with Michael Bottom; an astronomer who was working on his PhD. Michael Bottom was in charge of the observation that night. His intent was to find exoplanets using a “Waffle Pattern”, in a manner I shall explain shortly. However, first he and his team had to make sure all the equipment was in working order and that the climate/weather was safe (the equipment can be very fragile despite, or because of it’s size, and is particularly susceptible to condensation and changes in pressure). Several monitors helped the staff determined if the conditions were safe. One monitor examined temperature change and cloud cover, and could be used to determine if the clouds were coming or receding. As it happened, the conditions that night were perfect. Another monitor was used to determine the condition of the mirror and other portions of the telescope, and contained the coding for the waffle pattern. It was this one that was reporting issues. The observatory runs on very old equipment, some of which hasn’t been replaced since it has been installed, due to the sheer cost involved. Normally, the motors tell the operators exactly where the various parts are aligned. However, the previous night the motors had apparently given a false reading, and so the telescope had been aligned to incorrect parameters. When Michael Bottom used the test pattern, it would not align with where he was pointing it. Thus, for approximately 90 minutes (as I reckoned it), the astronomers had to busy themselves with re-aligning the telescope, a process which none of them were particularly happy about, especially given how good the conditions were. I managed to make myself a little useful during this time by helping on the monitors, though my guess is that this was more to make me feel useful than because they actually thought I would be of any use. When the problem was finally fixed, the astronomers could be seen to visibly relax. The dome was opened, and the process of slowly sweeping the sky began. Michael Bottom eagerly answered my questions about the process when he could. Put simply, he was trying to find exoplanets that were close to their parent stars, normally too close to see. In order to compensate for the glare, he ran a program on one of the computers that would cause the mirror to flex slightly in specific regions, resulting in a sort of crosshairs over the target star. Then, with that star marked, he would find a

Peter McLeod

star of similar luminosity and size, and use the computer to overlap the stars and cancel them out, revealing any reasonably large objects nearby which would normally be hidden by the star’s corona. (This is the waffle pattern I mentioned above) A camera would then photograph the resulting image, and they would move on to the next star. In order to save time, they would use the photographs exclusively when looking for the planets, analyzing collected data over the course of a month, as they did not possess infinite viewing time to waste looking at the stars individually. The in my observation the process, I noticed a number of white dots on the viewing screen which I would have thought to be stars, if it weren’t for the fact that the images contained actual stars which appeared as large balls of varying colors on the very same screen. When I inquired of their nature, I was informed that they were called “hot pixels”. The optical equipment at the observatory is likewise very old, and over time it has developed various blind spots. Hot pixels are said blind spots. Unfortunately, there was a good deal of them on the screen, though not so many as to actually seriously hamper observation. Nevertheless, the astronomers expressed both annoyance and concern when the subject of hot pixels was brought up. I was informed that said astronomers were one of many teams of astronomers who benefited from the observatory’s resources. While the teams were rivals, they all depended on the same old equipment, and so tried to minimize damage to it as best they could and repair it when possible. However, none of the times possessed the means to do a full overhaul of the observatory, so any sign that the equipment is failing, even slowly, is particularly worrisome. Sometime between 1 and 2 am, I had run out of steam, so I went back to the monastery and readied myself for a (rather short) sleep. Later that morning, I awoke, and I went home, at approximately 8:00 am. I enjoyed my stay. From my experience, I determined that if I was going to go into that field, I would enjoy myself considerably, though I would also likely have a lot of work to do.

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