Adventures at Kitt Peak National Observatory

I am excited to add another major observatory to my list of observing experiences, and hence an occasion to continue my blog.  Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) is located in Arizona, southwest of Tucson, and I will be here for 5 nights.  Already, even my travels to the mountain have been enjoyable, although somewhat rocky. 

The fortunate part of traveling through Tucson was that I could spend one night with my adviser from my time doing research in Chile, Dr. Simon Schuler.  Simon works at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), which runs KPNO.  In the time since I was working with Simon, he married his wife Nancy, moved to Tucson, and most recently had a beautiful baby girl, Evie.  It was a real pleasure to spend some time with their family, and I'm excited to see Evie in the coming years as she grows into a soccer player, scientist, and many more incredible things I'm sure.

This is somewhat a diversion from my real purpose here, which is to observe using the WIYN (Wisconsin-Indiana-Yale-NOAO) 3.5m telescope.  I consider this experience a big step in my "career", as it's the first time I will be observing as a solo astronomer (with the assistance of the telescope operator, of course). As flustered as I was to plan my travel to Tucson and prepare my own observations, learning about how the telescope functions and deciding my observing plan, I realized at the last minute that I had no confirmation of how I would actually get to the telescope from Tucson.  Fortunately Simon was "in the know" and helped me find a security guard at NOAO in Tucson, who called in permission to leave me with a set of keys to the NOAO-emblazoned Ford Escape Hybrid.  Behind the wheel, I got on the road excited for the hour and a half drive up the mountain...  Good thing I love to drive, and I love wide open spaces! 

Here's my first view of Kitt Peak (and the giant 4-m telescope dome)

Once at KPNO, I found the WIYN house and then proceeded to the WIYN telescope, where I met the two other observers here prior to me.  They are observing star clusters using the same instrument that I will be using, and they very generously allowed me to "observe" them observing for one night.  I was taking notes, learning the drill, and generally getting adjusted to life at the telescope.  I also took a walk over to the 4-meter telescope to see a friend of mine from Clemson who's observing supernovae, and she showed me around the giant, vintage telescope dome. 


Tonight their observations lasted about 9 hours (before humidity set in and the dome was closed), a welcome improvement over the previous nights of clouds and snow.  We may have some snow for our walk down to the house, but hopefully it will blow through before my observations officially begin tomorrow night.