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Principal Investigator: |
Dr. Galen R. Gisler |
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Position/Title: |
Technical Staff Member |
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Affiliation: |
Los Alamos National Laboratory |
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Institute for Nuclear and Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology |
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Mailing Address: |
Mail Stop D434 |
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Los Alamos National Laboratory |
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Los Alamos NM 87545 |
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Telephone: |
505 667-1375, 505 667-0400, 505 667-7900 |
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email: |
gisler@lanl.gov |
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Co-Principal Investigator: |
Dr. Todd J. Haines |
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Position/Title: |
Technical Staff Member |
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Affiliation: |
Los Alamos National Laboratory |
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Mailing Address: |
Mail Stop H803 |
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Los Alamos National Laboratory |
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Los Alamos NM 87545 |
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Telephone: |
505 667-3638 |
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email: |
haines@lanl.gov |
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Co-Principal Investigator: |
Dr. Donald E. Casperson |
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Position/Title: |
Technical Staff Member |
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Affiliation: |
Los Alamos National Laboratory |
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Mailing Address: |
Mail Stop D436 |
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Los Alamos National Laboratory |
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Los Alamos NM 87545 |
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Telephone: |
505 667-1475 |
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email: |
dcasperson@lanl.gov |
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Project Title: |
Transient Phenomena in Astrophysics |
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Research Site: |
Jemez Mountains of Northern New Mexico, particularly the Fenton Hill site of the Los Alamos National Laboratory |
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Rendezvous Site: |
Albuquerque International Airport, approximately 90 miles south of Los Alamos |
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Team Dates in Field: |
June 16 - June 30, 1998 |
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Team Size: |
8 |
Transient phenomena in astrophysics include some of the most enigmatic and exciting subjects of study in the Universe. Among the phenomena included are gamma-ray bursts, supernovae, comets and asteroids, flare stars and other types of variable stars, active galactic nuclei and quasars, and microlensing events. Each of these represents a rich and complex field of study with rewards that include greater understanding of the origins and eventual fate of the Universe in which we live, and greater understanding of the fundamental physics of matter. Yet the systematic study of such transients has barely begun. Our project focuses on the use of new, fully automated optical astronomical telescopes, programmed to respond to announcements of high-energy transients (such as gamma-ray bursts or X-ray transients) while in the meanwhile carrying out a systematic program of detection and identification of new optical transients.
The students will participate in running a new observatory at Fenton Hill, testing, debugging, and using the instrumentation, and interrogating the data stream with the goal of identifying new transient sources. A telescope we presently have running (February 1998) produces over 3 Gigabytes of useful data (and could produce more!) every clear night, and tracking that data for significant night-to-night changes is a task we must accomplish. The students will use modern image analysis tools to examine and calibrate the data, and will assist in the development of an automated system for parsing through large quantities of astronomical image data. By the summer of 1998 we expect to have other telescopes running that will produce comparably large data streams.
In addition, further development of the Fenton Hill Observatory will be facilitated by continuing the site characterization study that was begun by the 1997 Student Challenge Awards team at Fenton Hill. Site characterization entails, among other things, making measurements of the astronomical "seeing" and atmospheric extinction. To deploy a large telescope in the Jemez mountains, LANL scientists will want to place it where it will experience the best possible seeing. "Seeing" refers to the distortion of light produced by the motion of air currents in the atmosphere. Resolving double stars is the traditional way of measuring seeing. When the seeing is bad, then double stars that are close together will merge into one, and when it is good, they can be separated cleanly. At any given site, the seeing will vary from night to night, but a desirable thing to know for the purposes of developing an observatory is how good the seeing can be at a particular site, and how frequently it is bad. There's a lot of folklore on what makes good sites good, but little real understanding of the phenomenon. Atmospheric extinction refers to the absorption, refraction, and scattering of light as it passes through the atmosphere. This effect causes a star to appear brighter when it is directly overhead than when it is low in the sky. Like seeing, extinction also varies from night to night, with the presence or absence of particles, aerosols, and water vapor in the air.
Transient phenomena in astrophysics are among the most interesting and enigmatic subjects of study in the entire Universe. Yet, with the notable exceptions of the wide-field satellite experiments BATSE, EGRET, and ALEXIS, and the Milagro detector under construction, present astrophysical research programs sample the world of transients only haphazardly. It can be argued that we sample the time domain much more poorly than we do the spectral or the spatial domains (Bondi, 1970; Schaefer 1989; Griest 1996;, Paczynski 1996). It is our ultimate aim to develop a multiwavelength observational facility, at the Los Alamos site on Fenton Hill, dedicated to the study of transient phenomena.
We include here a list of examples of transient phenomena, to which we expect this facility to contribute.
Gamma-ray bursts were discovered by Los Alamos scientists with the Department of Energy VELA satellites in the 1960's, and their cause remains largely unknown. During 1997, the first optical counterparts to gamma-ray bursts were detected, and one of them has given the first direct distance determination, placing it at the edge of the known Universe. The population of gamma-ray bursts may be the earliest discrete source population to arise in the history of the Universe, and they may therefore offer important fundamental clues to the development of structure and the nature of matter. Because they are so far away from us, yet so readily detectable in gamma rays, they are the most luminous objects known anywhere, though they shine only briefly. Alerts for follow-up observations are provided by the GCN (Global Coordinate distribution Network), which includes signals from the BATSE detection experiment on board the CGRO satellite (and eventually others), by informal networks from other satellites, and eventually by the Milagro TeV gamma-ray telescope now under construction.
While gamma-ray bursts are briefly the most luminous objects in the Universe, the most energetic long-lived phenomena known are Active Galactic Nuclei and Quasars. These emit radiation at almost every frequency we have been able to observe, from very long wavelength radio waves to very high energy (TeV) gamma rays, and are variable on time scales from sub-seconds to years. We do not understand these objects very well, though we believe they are powered by the accretion of matter onto million-solar-mass (or bigger) black holes. The transient phenomena observed in these sources could be associated with the accretion process, or more generally with the dynamics of matter in the vicinity of the black hole. More observations of flaring and variability, preferably coordinated over many wavelengths, would give us valuable new information as to the nature and character of these fascinating objects.
Supernovae are the explosions of stars at the end of their lives, and are most often seen in distant galaxies, frequently outshining the entire galaxy. They are as yet unpredictable, and are best discovered through a regular program of monitoring a large number of candidate galaxies. Besides their intrinsic interest, they function as standard candles for the measurement of the scale, age, and evolution of the Universe.
Microlensing events are examples of the phenomenon of the bending of light by gravitational mass, predicted by Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. Since most of the mass of the Universe apparently does not shine by its own light, it must be detected indirectly, by the effect that it has on the light of distant stars. The study of microlensing events, of which about 100 have already been observed, can tell us much about the location and physical characteristics of the dark matter, and therefore about the main constituent of the Universe.
Variable stars have fascinated humans since the dawn of our species, and while we know much about how many of them work, we still do not understand all the different types of variability, and how stars become variable, or cease variability. Certain types of variable stars are also standard candles for measuring cosmological distances.
Flare stars are low-temperature stars that experience sudden brightenings, by a mechanism thought to be the same as that which produces the much more modest flares on our own sun, namely the rapid reconnection of magnetic flux lines and the consequent conversion of magnetic energy to accelerated particles, heat and light.
Comets and Asteroids, temporary visitors to our part of space, have long been subjects of human fascination, dread and fear. The thrill of discovery has motivated many thousands of amateurs to spend long hours sweeping the heavens with modest equipment. Some of these people have been rewarded with objects bearing their own names, yet the population and size distribution of these objects is still poorly known. The mounting evidence that such objects may have been responsible for some of the mass species extinctions on Earth, and the recent observation of a comet's demise in the atmosphere of Jupiter, has heightened interest in the task of thorough characterization of those Solar System objects that might someday be a threat to life on Earth.
A multiwavelength observational facility could detect all of these transient phenomena, and possibly reveal objects that are either not yet known, or are completely new characteristics of previously known objects. The physics of astrophysical transients is, as indicated in the list above, extremely diverse, while the technology for detecting such phenomena does not discriminate among them. The technology needed to establish an observatory for transient astronomy involves telescopes in several wavelength regimes, appropriate software and computational hardware for digesting enormous quantities of data in real time, robotic components to ensure that data is taken whenever conditions are appropriate, network links to bring the data to the attention of researchers and to provide alerts (in both directions), and massive data storage equipment. The optical component of such an observatory should eventually include both wide-field small aperture telescopes and large aperture narrow-field telescopes.
The optical part of Fenton Hill Observatory includes, so far, three components: ATOMIC (Astrophysical Transient Observatory Multiple-Imaging Cameras), an optical all-sky monitor that looks at most of overhead sky, most of the time, at very low resolution; ROTSE (Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment), a system of fast-slew, wide-field telescopes with somewhat narrower field of view; and REACT (Research and Education Automatically Controlled Telescope), a modest aperture telescope for follow-up studies with a field of view of a fraction of a degree and resolution of a second of arc. The first of these to be running is ROTSE, which is itself made up of three separate instruments. ROTSE I, operating in semi-automated mode since January 1998, is a four-barrelled 6-inch telescope with a combined field of view of 16 degrees square, capable of doing a complete sky patrol in about an hour. ROTSE II is a pair of 16-inch telescopes, the first of which will be assembled in Los Alamos in March 1998. REACT is a 14-inch telescope in an automated dome expected to arrive in Los Alamos also in March 1998. The ATOMIC instrument is still in early conceptual design stage, though 2 CCD cameras and their computers have been acquired for it.
The work done by the Student Challenge Awards team will help Los Alamos National Laboratory develop the infrastructure (both hardware and software) to use the data from these automated systems most effectively. In addition, these systems will eventually become part of an international network for web-based interactive astronomy education, and the team's work will contribute strongly to that aim also.
Further information on Fenton Hill Observatory, the site, and our scientific objectives, will be found at <http://laastro.lanl.gov/fho/>, which includes some "live" pictures of the Observatory site, and records of the 1997 Student Challenge Awards team. We expect that the 1998 team will wish to develop a similar expedition record.
Until quite recently, visible-light sky surveys were done only occasionally, and were a substantial and costly effort. The enormous data handling problem is what prevents routine monitoring of the entire sky. When you consider the fact that a telescope can resolve objects in the sky down to a fraction of a second of arc, and there are more close to a trillion square arcseconds in the whole sky, you begin to realize the magnitude of the problem.
The advent of electronic imaging systems, such as charge-coupled devices, and of fast computers, computer networks, and data storage systems, has begun to make routine monitoring of the entire visible sky a conceivable ambition. The technology is almost within reach, and so the time is ripe to begin the design and implementation of systems that do this job. The instruments outlined above can form part of such a system.
But building robust automated machinery and recording the data is only the barest start. The data must then be calibrated, stored in a sensible way, and then interrogated to find objects of interest, for example, objects that change in brightness or move from one exposure to the next.
In the days when astronomical data was exclusively recorded on glass photographic plates, the instrument used for finding variable stars and moving sources was the blink comparator, in which two plates were placed side by side on a movable stage, and a microscope with a flip mirror was used to inspect (or "blink") the two plates. The researcher would spend many hours on a single pair of large plates, systematically steering the movable stage under the microscope lenses. It was tedious, mind-numbing work, and a deterrent to astronomical careers for many generations of students! Pluto, most asteroids, and almost all variable stars known before the 1970s were discovered using this 20th century equivalent of a medieval torture chamber.
Electronic "blinking" of CCD images is now routine, and makes the task of transient astrophysics far easier. But it is still largely a manual process, because each image must be carefully calibrated first, and human inspection of the variable lists produced by an automatic program often turns up spurious effects. When sky patrols are done several times per night, however, fully automatic processing will be essential to reduce the many Gigabytes of image data to lists of variable (or moving) sources.
The business of transients in astronomy necessarily involves the communication of alerts. Any observational project in astrophysical transients must necessarily either respond to alerts, generate alerts, or both. The reason for this is inherent in the rapid changes that occur and the need to obtain data while those changes are occurring in order to get a handle on the physics. Multi-wavelength and multi-site coverage is essential, as are imaging, spectroscopy, and photometry.
For gamma-ray bursts, rapid response to alerts has at last borne fruit during 1997 in the identification of optical counterparts, and the consequential deepening of our understanding. For near-earth objects, generation of (and response to) alerts is what enables the calculation of orbits. For other types of transients, alerts permit the essential follow-up with more sensitive instruments, or at other wavelengths, that elucidate the physics.
At Fenton Hill Observatory, we will soon have a very large data stream from the wide-field visible-light monitors mentioned earlier. ROTSE I alone is capable of doing 6 complete sky patrols per night, generating ~6 GBytes of data. A major chore will be the appropriate utilization of that data.
Scanning the ROTSE I sky-patrol data for transient events and figuring out how to generate alerts from those events is the initial goal of this project. Alerts would be passed first to other components of Fenton Hill Observatory (ROTSE II, REACT), then as confidence is gained, to global distribution systems such as the GCN and the IAU Circulars.
The students will learn how electronic imaging systems operate, and how to calibrate images produced by such systems using modern image analysis software, such as IRAF (<http://iraf.noao.edu>), or the software developed by the TASS project (<http://p674p06.isc.rit.edu/tass/tass.shtml>). Test data from the ROTSE telescope (and possibly REACT) will be available for trying out data reduction techniques, including sem-manual electronic blinking. The students will aid in constructing and debugging scripts for automating the reduction process, and possibly in installing such scripts into a real-time analysis system.
To place the electronic observatory into an appropriate context, the students will (weather permitting) also participate in night-time observing using their own eyes, with the telescopes we have at the Observatory. The students will learn the pitfalls of observational astronomy and additionally assist in the characterization of our site for future development.
The ideal astronomical site would have very dark skies, be far from any artificial sources of light, and far from any sources of air pollution. It would be in a dry climate with consistently good weather, it would be at high altitude, so that less atmosphere lies above it. Somewhat at conflict with these requirements, it should also be relatively accessible for the transport of equipment and scientists, reachable by electric power and modern communications, and convenient to sources of technical know-how. One can do preliminary site selection merely by inspecting maps to determine to what degree these requirements are likely to be satisfied at particular locations. But there are other, more subtle criteria, that demand careful measurements on site.
The most important of these are atmospheric extinction and "seeing".
Atmospheric extinction measures the transparency of the air. We view the stars through the blanket of oxygen, nitrogen, and trace gases that sustains life, and though it seems mostly transparent to us, it greatly affects the light that we get from stars. The only way to avoid this problem is to put a telescope in space. Different constituents of the atmosphere absorb or scatter light by different amounts, and aerosols (tiny droplets or particles suspended in the air) are the worst culprits. This is partly why we go to high altitude sites distant from sources of pollution, but even the best sites will have periods of high aerosol content due to unusual weather conditions, volcanic activity, fires, pollen, etc.
In order to measure the effects of the atmosphere on light transmission, ideally we would compare the brightness of a star with no atmosphere to its brightness with the atmosphere present, measured with the same experimental equipment. We can't do this! Instead we look at the brightness of a star that is directly overhead (i.e. at zenith) and watch its brightness decline (and its color change) as it sets toward the west, or we look at many stars of similar brightness but different zenith angles. This works because the path of light through the atmosphere is shortest for stars at the zenith, and gets steadily longer as stars are at greater and greater zenith angles. To a good approximation, we can regard the atmosphere above an observatory site as a thick slab (ignoring the curvature of the Earth). Light from a star at 60š from the zenith will then pass through twice as much air as light from a star at the zenith (the functional form of this is the trigonometric secant function), and will therefore have twice as much atmospheric extinction, all else being equal. Of course we have to compensate for the fact that the atmospheric conditions will vary across the sky, and with time, and there is a small correction for the curvature of the Earth.
"Seeing" describes the size and steadiness of the images of stars. In good seeing, the stars are tiny, sharp points of light that shine steadily. In bad seeing, the stars are large and fuzzy, and dance around. Air motions are responsible for seeing, and also for the twinkling of stars that can be seen by the unaided eye. The air motions that cause twinkling, however, are slower and bigger in scale than those that cause seeing. It's the fine-scale turbulent motions in the atmosphere that are harder to compensate for, and much more troublesome to the astronomer. Seeing is measured as the size of the smallest image that can be distinctly resolved in a telescope, and the best sites on Earth have consistently good seeing in the range of a few tenths of a second of arc. Typical observatory sites have consistent seeing at about one arc second, and seeing is considered poor above 3 arc seconds. Three traditional ways of measuring seeing are (1) inspect the telescope field visually for known double stars with separations in the range of subarcseconds to several seconds, and note the smallest separation that can cleanly be resolved; (2) obtain electronic images of star fields on CCD cameras (charge coupled device, the silicon chip used in modern video cameras), and carefully measure the image of each star for its total brightness and width; (3) obtain a series of images on a given star field very rapidly, say 20-30 frames a second, and measure the size and motion of the star images in the animation sequence. These experiments are generally performed repeatedly for a large number of star fields or double stars at a given site, and the quoted result is formed from the assembly of data obtained.
Hermann Bondi, 1970, Q. J. Roy. Astr. Soc. 11, 443, "Presidential Address"
Bohdan Paczynski, 1996, "The Future of Massive Variability Searches", in 12th IAP Colloquium: Variable Stars and the Astrophysicical Returns of Microlensing Surveys (a copy of this paper is included with this briefing package)
Bradley Schaefer, 1989, Astrophys. J. 337, 927, "Flashes from Normal Stars"
Norman Sperling, 1990, "Light Pollution: An Overview", in Light Pollution: Problems and Solutions, Astronomical Society of the Pacific.
James S. Sweitzer, 1993, Mercury 22, 13, "The Last Observatory on Earth"
The research team will spend some classroom time learning some of the fundamentals of astronomy, of electronic imaging systems, and of image analysis software. An early field trip to the observatory site will acquaint them with the equipment we are using, and, weather permitting, give them some exposure to observational astronomy.
In the field, the research team will use moderate size telescopes (e.g. 7 inch Meade, 14 inch Celestron) to acquaint themselves with the night sky, to perform initial observations on objects of potential interest, and to examine the effects of atmospheric extinction and seeing. The first few days will be spent working toward an understanding of the concepts of atmospheric transmission of light, and a consideration of qualities that make for good potential observatory sites. The students will learn the basics of navigating the night sky, the location of the major constellations, of bright double stars and nebulae. They will also learn how stellar brightness is measured, the magnitude scale and the concept of standard stars. They will learn to develop confidence in their own judgments as to the relative brightness of stars, an important scientific measurement that has been done by eye from the time of the ancient Greeks until our very own day, when it is only now being supplemented (not replaced) by sophisticated electronics.
The team will decide how to allocate responsibilities for making measurements. For example, the team might set up three stations, one devoted to visual measurements of extinction, one to visual seeing measurements, and a third to electronic seeing or extinction measurements (or both). The team might then divide into subgroups of two or three students each, to alternate among these stations. Two students might start on visual extinction measurements, looking at a series of relatively bright stars and determining their relative magnitudes by eye. They might then move to visual seeing measurements, where they would inspect a series of double stars to see how well they can be separated. Then they would spend some time with the electronic measurements. It is important to rotate each student through all types of measurements to limit individual observing biases and assure the most objective possible measures. The use of the different techniques will also build each student's familiarity with, and confidence in, the science of measurement and analysis. In addition to the measurement efforts, the students will also spend some time doing some recreational star-hopping to look at some of the spectacular beauties of the night sky: things like nebulae, star clusters, and planets. Logs of these observations, noting colors, vividness, ease of locating and acquiring them in the telescope eyepieces, will also prove very valuable for the students themselves as well as for the development of our observatory. Observations will run from evening twilight until exhaustion or morning twilight (remember, nights are shortest in June!).
In the laboratory, the team will have access to modern computers networked to each other, to the observatory's data archives, and to the observatory site. These computers will have astronomical software and image reduction packages installed on them. Initially, the team will be given access to some recent good-quality data taken by our telescopes and be asked to devise means of finding variable or moving sources in that data. Any variable sources found will be logged against lists of known variables, and monitored in further data if they are new. Moving sources will be logged against lists of known minor planets, and their courses predicted and tracked if they are new. If new minor planets are found, we'll have a quick cram course on astrodynamics and orbit calculation. The team will set up mechanisms for confirming discoveries and communicating them to each other and to the astronomical community. If time and weather permit, the team will schedule follow-up observations with live telescopes at Fenton Hill to continue to track "their" new sources.
The timing of this campaign is such that it spans the time between last quarter moon (when the moon rises at midnight) until first quarter moon (when the moon rises at noon). New moon, which is the best time for dark-sky observations, occurs on June 23. We will adapt ourselves as closely as we can to a night-time work schedule, to optimize our performance out in the field. Certain field trips, seminars, and other activities may require us to change our schedule from time to time, but we will not schedule any group activities before 2 pm on any day. The time from morning twilight until noon is intended to be used for sleeping.
The students will maintain a log of their activities, and design a web site based on their logs to serve as a team log. This will serve as a permanent record of the project.
Last year's Student Challenge Awards team was plagued by weather problems. We hope to avoid those problems by scheduling this year's project 5 weeks earlier. Thunderstorm season in northern New Mexico generally starts in early July, but if it starts early this year, we will have to take precautions. The thunderstorms tend to occur in the afternoon and evening, just when we would be arriving at our site and setting up. Of course, the top of a mountain is just exactly the wrong place to be during a thunderstorm, and New Mexico has far more than its share of lightning-caused deaths.
We will therefore have to be very careful watchers of both the weather and the moon to make the best use of our time. The students will receive lightning and wilderness safety training (possibly also first aid) before embarking on any field expeditions, and will learn to read the signs of natural hazards in the field, and to take appropriate courses of action for avoiding those hazards. The team will arrive at a conservative team policy on decision making based on safety issues (departing from a known safe site; deploying equipment; repacking equipment; departing for home).
Dr. Galen Gisler is the Associate Director of the Institute for Nuclear and Particle Astrophysics & Cosmology at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He is also an adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Physics & Astronomy at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. Dr. Gisler received his Ph.D. in Astrophysics from Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK (1976). He will be with the students for approximately 1/2 of their time on the project.
Dr. Todd Haines is a J. Robert Oppenheimer Fellow in the Physics Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He is also an assistant research scientist in the Department of Physics at the University of Maryland. Dr. Haines received his Ph D. in Physics from the University of California, Irvine (1986). He will be with the students for approximately 1/4 of their time on the project. He is team leader for particle astrophysics, in charge of the Milagro ultra-high-energy gamma-ray telescope under construction on Fenton Hill.
Dr. Donald Casperson is a staff scientist working on detector development for astronomical and satellite projects. He has made important contributions to the ROTSE telescope project, is highly committed to education in astronomy and physics. Dr. Casperson received his Ph.D in Physics from Yale University (1975). He is also involved in an effort to acquire a large-aperture liquid mirror telescope for Fenton Hill.
Dr. Richard Miller is a postdoctoral fellow in the Physics Division, working on the Milagro project and helping to design the imaging system for the ATOMIC wide-field monitor.
Mr. Chad Young is an Undergraduate Student Assistant in the Physics Division, working on the optics for the ATOMIC wide-field monitor.
Mr. Guthrie Partridge is an Undergraduate Student Assistant working on the networking and data processing for the REACT telescope.
Mr. Jim Wren is a staff technician involved with the ROTSE telescope project.
Dr. Jeffrey Bloch is coordinator for the ROTSE telescope to be installed on Fenton Hill.
Dr. Diane Roussel-Dupre is project leader for the ALEXIS low-energy X-ray astronomical satellite and with the FORTE radio-band satellite.
Ms. Sandra Fletcher is a staff scientist in the Space Astrophysics group, in charge of spacecraft operations for the ALEXIS low-energy X-ray astronomical satellite.
Ms. Dolores Jacobs is the leader of the Science Education and Outreach office, and will be a resource person for the campaign.
Donna Powell, high school teacher at Crownpoint NM, will be residing at the hotel with the students and participating in some of our activities. She will also be helping to organize the offsite activities and field trips.
The Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) was originally established in 1943 by the U.S. Army's Manhattan Engineer District for the purpose of developing the first atomic bombs. Though its primary mission remains nuclear weapons research and development, many programs are conducted at LANL, including basic research in the area of physics, chemistry, radiology, and medicine. About 12,000 employees work at LANL, mostly in the main technical area. The entire site spreads over 43 square miles.
Los Alamos sits on the Pajarito Plateau, a shelf off the eastern flank of the Jemez Mountains, which is an ancient volcano. The local landscape is characterized by potrillos, fingers of high, relatively flat land separated by deep rocky canyons. The shaded canyons harbor ponderosa pine trees, while the mesa tops are populated by piñon and juniper. Ponderosa pine becomes more common again at altitudes just above the mesa tops, and is eventually succeeded by fir and spruce and aspen at yet higher elevations in the mountains. The team will work in all of these habitats, mesas to mountain flanks to mountain tops.
The altitude of the town of Los Alamos is 7300 feet above sea level. The main LANL tech areas range in elevation from 6500 feet to 8000 feet. Fenton Hill, the main site being considered for an observatory, is at 8600 feet. Because of the high altitude, ultraviolet light from the sun is intense and can cause severe sunburn.
Temperatures during the day can reach the low 90s in Los Alamos and the main Lab sites, but only the low 80s at the higher elevations. At night the temperatures will range from the 40s to the 70s. June tends to be dry, but July begins the thunderstorm season.
Note: the detailed itinerary will necessarily depend on the weather, and may not resemble the ideal schedule given here! Night-time observing is possible almost any night, and we will take advantage of those that are clear.
Day 1, Tuesday June 16: Pick up at Albuquerque Airport. Lunch in Old Town. Drive to Los Alamos and settle into accommodations. Get acquainted and establish ground rules.
Day 2, Wednesday June 17: Formal Los Alamos National Laboratory safety training sessions. Site visit to Fenton Hill, and familiarization with the geography and topography of the Jemez Mountains. Site tour of the Milagro project. Possible night-time observing session.
Day 3, Thursday June 18: Classes on introductory astronomy, transients, and CCDs. Discussions of automated telescope observing, uses in research and education. Design of our web site and log. Possible night-time observing session.
Day 4, Friday June 19: Classes on astronomical image analysis, and hands-on experience with real data obtained by ROTSE. Possible night-time observing session.
Day 5, Saturday June 20: Visit to Santa Fe, the Palace of the Governors Museum, the Santa Fe Plaza, and possibly an Indian Pueblo. An evening cultural activity, possibly the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.
Day 6, Sunday June 21: Afternoon barbecue at the Gislers' home, with informal discussion of lessons learned so far, and music (bring instruments!). Possible night-time observing session.
Day 7, Monday June 22: Data analysis: learning by experience how to find variables and moving objects. Discussion of how to automate. Discussion of alerts, and the generation and responsible communication of alerts. Possible night-time observing session.
Day 8, Tuesday June 23: Field trips and site tours of research projects at LANL (e.g. ALEXIS) and relation of these to the astrophysical transient observatory. Possible night-time observing session.
Day 9, Wednesday June 24: Data analysis: implementation of transient-finding procedures. Script writing, automation. Possible night-time observing session.
Day 10, Thursday June 25: Field trip to the Very Large Array radio telescope of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, near Socorro, New Mexico.
Day 11, Friday June 26: Data analysis: implementation of transient-finding procedures. Script writing, automation. Possible night-time observing session.
Day 12, Saturday June 27: Field trip to Bandelier National Monument. Possible night-time observing session.
Day 13, Sunday June 28: Data analysis: implementation of transient-finding procedures. Generation of alerts. Preparation of presentation. Possible night-time observing session.
Day 14, Monday June 29: Preparation of final logs and finishing up the web site. Make a presentation to the Transient Astrophysics Interest Group at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Day 15, Tuesday June 30: Farewell breakfast in Santa Fe. Drop-off at Albuquerque International Airport.
Here I've listed a daily schedule that we may keep. The period of our campaign runs from last quarter moon (which rises at midnight) through new moon (which rises at sunrise) to first quarter moon (which rises at noon). Much of our work will be done at night, and astronomers often find it convenient to go to bed when the moon rises, since a bright moon spoils the darkness of the night sky. Bad weather also makes astronomers go to bed, but that's harder for us to schedule! Ideally, toward the middle of our campaign, we'll be following a schedule that looks something like this (exclusive of field trips):
We will have cots available at the observatory site for resting, so we don't get too tired out by this schedule, especially as it may be difficult to adjust at first.
The students will spend most nights in the Hilltop House Hotel, a nicely furnished hotel at the eastern edge of Los Alamos, with views overlooking the Rio Grande Valley and the Sangre de Cristo mountains. Weather permitting, we may camp overnight at the one or two most distant sites we visit.
Most meals will be taken at the hotel restaurant or at the LANL cafeterias. Some meals will be taken at restaurants in the Jemez Springs or La Cueva communities, close to our potential field sites. Picnic lunches or dinners will be provided for our evenings at remote sites. On our field trips to Santa Fe, a restaurant in Santa Fe will be used.
Phone messages can be left with the LANL NIS-2 group office, 505 667-5127, with the Fenton Hill Observatory site office, 505 667-7900, or with the Hilltop House Hotel, 505 662-2441. The Milagro site on Fenton Hill is 505 665-0703. Phone numbers for the principal investigators are: Galen Gisler, 505 667-1375 or 505 667-0400, home 505 672-9578; Don Casperson, 505 667-1475, home 662-4335, Todd Haines, 505 667-3638, home 672-9223.
Mail can be addressed to the students at:
If you have a lightweight tent, and would like to use it, by all means bring it. We'll be renting some for our occasional overnights, but you might prefer your own.
And - if you are so fortunate as to have your own telescope, and would like to try it at a dark site, please plan to do bring it also. Let me know in advance, however, so that I can make any arrangements that might be needed.
The activities will involve some hiking and hauling equipment around at altitudes of between 7200 and 11200 feet (our Fenton Hill site is at 8700 ft.). Most of the test sites are within a few hundred yards of a jeep road. For each site, the team will take data for several hours. Students should be relatively fit and prepared for working at night and at relatively high elevations. Conditions at the site may be difficult for students with allergies or with extreme sensitivity to ultraviolet light.
The students will be met at Albuquerque International Airport at about noon on Tuesday, June 16. In the main hall of the airport, on the level with the ticket counters, there is an old biplane hanging from the ceiling, in front of windows that look out over the city of Albuquerque and the Sandia Mountains. Representatives from Los Alamos will be near the biplane with Earthwatch expedition signs. Students should notify Galen Gisler (office 505 667-1375, home 672-9578 or gisler@lanl.gov) with their flight schedules, or with any last-minute changes of plans.
There are a number of popular to semi-popular books on astronomy that the students might find helpful to read in advance as preparation for this expedition. It would be most helpful if the students arrive with some familiarity with the summer night sky, and the following books (or more modern ones) may help them gain that familiarity:
Donald H. Menzel, A Field Guide to the Stars and Planets, Houghton Mifflin Co. Boston, 1964
Charles A. Whitney, Whitney's Star Finder, Alfred A. Knopf New York, 1976
The popular magazines Astronomy and Sky and Telescope also provide very helpful starcharts and articles about interesting topics in observational optical astronomy. I recommend particularly the following article as an introduction:
Alan M. McRobert, May 1997, Sky and Telescope 93, No. 5, P 80, "The top 12 naked-eye variable stars"
Sky Publishing Corporation, which publishes Sky and Telescope, has a wide variety of resource material available, including star charts and night sky guides for various latitudes (ours is 35š north, by the way). They can be reached at 49 Bay State Rd, Cambridge MA 02138, 617 864 7360, <http://www.skypub.com>
The American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) is also a highly valuable resource for the kinds of work we are doing this summer. They are an organization of mostly amateur astronomers who keep track of stars that vary in brightness. They publish a journal, and several pamphlets, among which is:
Margaret W. Mayall, Manual for Observing Variable Stars, AAVSO, Cambridge MA 1970
The AAVSO may be reached at: 25 Birch St, Cambridge MA 02138, 617-354-0484, <http://www.aavso.org>. Membership is $15 for Juniors (under 21 years of age) and $25 for adults.