Dr. McCarthy gave us instructions on how to open the dome and operate the telescope.
The observing platform is hydraulic so the observers can be raised or lowered as needed during observing.
We were told that the telescope does not have any software interlocks and we should always know where we were commanding the telescope to slew.
We also had to make sure the floor was not raised if we picked a target at the zenith.
Then he turned us lose, and the campers picked the targets and operated the telescope for the rest of the night.
Needless to say, the views through a 61” telescope were great.
Part of the campers went back to Mt Lemmon at about 1:00am.
The rest of us stayed until the sun started coming up.
During the day we had lectures and demonstrations on Astronomy, by the staff, in what was the base recreation hall.
The presentations were very informative.
Dr. Larry Lebofsky gave a very interesting talk on Meteor Events and specifically on the Russian Chelyabinsk meteor.
Dave Follette, the camp cook, did set up and did a Reuben's Tube demonstration. While it was mainly a physics demonstration, it was very interesting. I may have to build one for Nancy and I.
We did Solar Observing.
While we could sleep as long as we wanted, we also did not want to miss the events that Dr. McCarthy had planned.
The last night, Dr McCarthy set up a Celestron 11 inch telescope outside the dome of the 61-inch. The C11 had a Starizona HyperStar camera attached.
Most of the campers wanted to spend all of their time on the 61” but a few of us wanted to try astrophotography.
Gary Duranko, from New Hampshire, and I captured about 14 images that we thought were worth keeping.
This is a link to the processed images.
If you would like to see what the raw “FITS” data looks like, send me an email and I will send you a link.
After I got home, I downloaded “FITS Liberator” from the NASA website.
FITS Liberator is a free program that allows anyone to process the raw FITS data from a CCD camera.
I saved the processed files as TIFF files.
Then I loaded the TIFF files into Adobe Photoshop 7 where I converted them to JPG images for the Internet.
The camera was monochrome so there was not any color data.
I still have the raw data and after I get some more experience, I will probably process them again.
Monday May 13, we checked out of the dorms and loaded the vans for the trip back to civilization.
Dr. McCarthy offered to give a tour of Kitt Peak for anyone who was interested.
Most of the campers had flights to catch, so dropped them off at the airport.
Nancy, myself, and two other campers went to Kitt Peak for the tour.
I am sure there are regular tours at Kitt Peak.
However, the tour that Dr. McCarthy gave us was really great.
It was obvious that he had worked there and knew a lot about the telescopes that were installed there and the history behind the site.
We had a great time at the Astronomy Camp.
I would recommend the camp to anyone who has an interest in Astronomy and wants to learn.
There are also programs for Middle School and High School students.
Please check out: http://www.astronomycamp.org/ for more information.