Weasner's 2008 Visit to Kitt Peak

VISIT TO KITT PEAK NATIONAL OBSERVATORY

Last updated: 5 April 2008

On 4 April 2008, my wife, Laurraine, and I had the opportunity for a fourth special visit to the Kitt Peak National Observatory courtesy of the Indiana University College of Arts and Sciences (my alma mater). We were able to use the WIYN 3.5-meter telescope (yes, the telescope has an 11.5-foot diameter mirror!) to view several objects prior to the start of formal research by the Staff and Astronomers.

We arrived early to walk around the Site. Here are some photographs I took:

The WIYN observatory:

A poster about the WIYN observatory inside the Visitor Center:

There were lots of these "Western Scrub-Jay" birds outside the Visitor Center:

On the walk to the WIYN observatory we had this nice view of some other observatories:

From this vantage point I took a series of photographs as I panned my handheld DSLR around 360°. I used DoubleTake on my Apple MacBook Pro to "stitch" these into a full 360° panorama:

Click the image to view the QuickTime VR panorama and then use your mouse to pan left and right.

(If you don't have QuickTime installed you can view a large JPEG version by clicking here.)

Here's some information about the WIYN observatory:

And a view of the WIYN observatory:

Here's another view of some of the other observatories on Kitt Peak:

I took another series of photographs as I panned my handheld DSLR about 120°. Again I used DoubleTake on my Apple MacBook Pro to "stitch" these into a 120° panorama:

Click the image to view the QuickTime VR panorama and then use your mouse to pan left and right.

(If you don't have QuickTime installed you can view a large JPEG version by clicking here.)

Here's a view of the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope:

Inside the Kitt Peak Visitor Center is this plaque, sponsored by my friends at Oceanside Photo and Telescope:

We viewed the Sunset from just outside WIYN:

After the WIYN was opened up after Sunset I was able to get a photograph of the telescope inside:

Here's a view that most visitors to Kitt Peak don't get to see; domes opening up in preparation for a night's work:

Another observatory and the lights of Tucson:

Open for Business:

After dark we started using the WIYN; here's Laurraine at the eyepiece:

Observatories, Tucson, and some stars in this from inside WIYN:

(5 second exposure, ISO 1250)

A telescope hard at work:

(3 second exposure, ISO 1600)

A view of Sirius and some other stars through the opening in the WIYN observatory:

(30 second exposure, ISO 1250)

During the evening we were able to observe the following: Mars (it was so bright that I put on my sunglasses so that I could see surface details!), three planetary nebulae, two open star clusters, some galaxies, and ended the night with a spectacular view of Saturn. The views through a 3.5 meter telescope are awesome and rival long duration astrophotographs made with smaller telescopes.

Thanks once again to Jeff Stuckey of the College of Arts and Sciences for sponsoring the event, and to the IU Astronomy Department and the WIYN staff for another very memorable experience!

See our other Kitt Peak visit pages:

Go to the Observatory Visits page.