Impressions of Bryant Students Who Visited Seagrave Memorial Observatory
by
I teach two astronomy labs at Bryant University. And during the semester I include a trip to either Ladd Observatory on a Tuesday night, or Seagrave Observatory on a Wednesday night. For the 2013 fall semester both labs were fortunate. It was clear for each of the scheduled nights.
Here are a few comments from the students. I have also included a very nice drawing from one student named Amanda Spaziano. It is funny what they somehow mis-hear or misunderstand. Though I pointed them to the Skyscrapers website for directions, several students referred to our observatory as Seagrams! While stargazing can be quite intoxicating, I’m not sure what they were thinking. Or perhaps they were thinking outside the box and suggesting a future sponsor to foot our property insurance. And most of the students complained about the cold. It was a balmy 35 degrees.
“The first telescope I saw was the 8-inch Alvan Clark Refractor. The telescope was located in a dimly lit dome shaped building and everything was carried out manually. I remember the professor saying that the telescope was given to Frank Seagrave as his 16th birthday present from his wealthy parents. I was very impressed to see this telescope since it is very antique and looks like a work of art. In addition, the quality of the image reflected on the telescope is also very clear considering the age of the telescope.
Through the telescope, we saw Jupiter long with other stars in the sky. The weather was also in our favor since we did not have major problem locating the objects in the sky.
The second telescope I saw was completely different from the first one. The telescope sits on an off roof building and everything was done digitally through a device to locate the objects in the sky. We located three to four objects in the sky and the last one I believe was Andromeda. I find it easy to look through the eyehole of the second telescope when compared to the first telescope. Also, it was less time consuming to locate the objects since the coordinates are put into the telescope digitally. Towards the end of the night, the weather became so cold and I became very eager to go home.
I believe this was a very good experience for me since I have not been to an observatory before. I was especially happy to get the chance to see the Alvan Clark Refractor since there was so much history and stories behind this telescope.”
“The Seagrave observatory was an eye-opening experience for me, as I had not been to an observatory since I was a little kid. We met Alex, a 12 year old that wants to be an astronaut, it was very endearing to see such a young person with a set goal and passion for what he likes, he will go far in life with this mindset.”
“The experience was different; a much more private place with a dedicated crew of astronomers committed to the observatory and with conviction to keep educating people about what happens in our skies … The fact that the observatory is small and mainly supported by people who are passionate about astronomy surely is inspirational. The Amateur Astronomical Society, as I believe the sign on the way to the first telescope showed, has within it, dedicated people who take care of the facility and inform other persons who are interested to know more about our skies.”
“I thought that going to the observatory was a very good way to cement the things that we have been learning this semester and to put it in perspective.”
“First and fore most I am glad I was able to attend this little excursion. It was my first trip to a real observatory and my first up close view of some powerful telescopes. It was a rather frightening place at first glance; as I am sure some of the others would agree. It took me longer than I’d like to admit to understand why there were no lights on outside (the use of red lights to avoid interference with telescopes was pretty cool).
The telescope I saw first was the 12 inch Schmidt-Cassegrain (I believe. It was dark and I missed the name initially). While it was cold, I still got to enjoy the view of Uranus, Jupiter, and the Eye of Taurus, Aldebaran. I suppose I was expecting the view to be clearer, but nonetheless the view of Jupiter and four of its moons was spectacular. Our host also showed us a couple pictures he had taken of Jupiter and the Andromeda galaxy. They were quite enthralling and I was thoroughly impressed. On that note, it was nice to see how the Skyscrapers passion reflected upon their meeting hall. The autographed pictures and framed photos of their achievements made the place seem like a mini museum.
“The second telescope I saw was my personal favorite, due to my love for unique antiques. The 8-inch Alvan Clark refractor was a thing of beauty…I was mesmerized by the fact it was all powered by a mechanized pulley system, a far cry from the Schmidt telescope. The structure (the) Alvan (Clark) was placed in was attention-grabbing as well. The captain’s wheel that moved the dome was a child’s-dream and I was so glad I got to use it. The ingenuity of the track system was a fun story as well. I couldn’t believe the dome used to slide on cannon balls (and that they would sometimes pop out). The shift to using shot puts as the ball bearings doesn’t seem much better though, but they looked secure and the engineer (knew) what he was doing.
All-in-all I really enjoyed the trip to the observatory. I got to gaze at some planets and view some rather impressive pieces of technology: old and new. I hope to go on my own one day and get a greater glance at our night skies.
Below is a rough sketch I made after the trip:
“It’s crazy to me that so many people have so little knowledge about the stars and the other planets in our solar system. Everyone should take the time out to go to an observatory to see other planets and get some background knowledge about where we live and everything around us. I am going to make sure that I bring my kids to an observatory at least a few times because it’s cool to see other planets. I also liked seeing the stars and the few constellations that we looked at but my favorite was to look at Jupiter. I’ve really never gotten a chance to look at another planet before and it was cool to be able to see the moons around Jupiter. It put in perspective what Earth must look like from an outside look at it. I’m assuming that from Jupiter, Earth would look quite the same as Jupiter did to us just much smaller. I also liked looking at the pictures inside the observatory. I was surprised to hear that famous astronauts had been there.”
“A visit to the Seagrave Memorial Observatory was a great experience for our lab class to have. It gave us a chance to see firsthand some of the planets and constellations we have learned about in class …Later in the evening, we also looked at planets. First we found the planet Uranus. When we looked through the telescope, the planet shined a bright blue. Of everything we were able to see that night, Uranus was my favorite. Next we located Jupiter. Jupiter was another fun planet to observe through the telescope. We were able to view four of Jupiter’s moons. The planets were fascinating to see through the telescope and I am glad we were given the opportunity to.”
“Being a finance major, I found it hard to stay interested in the class especially with my other class projects and semester papers. However, it makes me think about my future career and whether I would have enjoyed a different path than the one I’m taking. It brings me back to my childhood when my father would wake me up at some ungodly hour of the morning to watch a meteor shower, or staying up late in the back yard looking through my Dad’s telescope. I’d give anything in the world to go back to those days, and I feel like this class was able to help. When you take a step back from everything, astronomy makes me feel very small in the universe around us. Thinking about this helps me focus on the important things in life and I shouldn’t let little things bother me. Overall, I was very surprised in how much I enjoyed the class this semester. I probably wasn’t the best sunspot counter, but in all seriousness I want to keep building my interest in the subject.”
“One of the things that really impressed me was that a telescope (Clark) that was built well over one hundred years ago is still in use today and can get such clear images of planets and galaxies so far away … craftsmanship so fine that this telescope has been in use since the 1870s. I was also surprised by how easily the dome was able to shift. One barely had to apply any pressure on the wheel to make the entire top half of the dome rotate seamlessly.”
“It was cool that we were able to see Jupiter and Uranus because I had never looked at them in the sky before. I had heard people say that it was possible to see them on certain nights but I had never taken the time to look, or even know what I was looking for. At the observatory we were not only able to see them with our own eyes but we could then find it in the telescopes and see much more. We could even see the bands of Jupiter which cannot be seen with our eyes alone … Another aspect which I enjoyed was that we could see the constellations in the sky, and knew what they were. We had just learned them for a quiz and we were able to look into the sky and point them and also ask questions about them. I really enjoyed looking at the constellations and I think that the trip was a good way to end the semester because it reinforced everything we had learned and sort of put it to the test to see what we remembered and learned. The stars and planets are so far away and we usually just look at them on the computer or on paper during class but being able to visit the observatory made it more real. It is something we do not necessarily need to know in life but something cool that we could look into the sky and point out constellations and planets and know what they are.”
“The physical images I saw of Jupiter, Uranus, and the ‘eye of the bull’ blew my mind and I am so happy I had the opportunity to see them live with my own eyes. I could see two of Jupiter’s moons and that was very interesting because those moons are enormous compared to our moon. Seeing the actual lines of Jupiter where the color changed from light orange to black to dark orange and red. Unfortunately I could not spot the big red storm but I was again real happy I could see the actual lines separating color of the planet. Overall seeing Jupiter first-hand was a very eye-opening experience and I will never forget it.
Viewing Uranus through the other telescope (12-inch Schmidt-Cass) was also very intriguing because that one was programmed to move to see different object by remote. It amazed me that a telescope on Earth was able to track Uranus and its exact location as well as other stars in that region by an automated movement. Seeing Uranus, a planet so incredibly far away from Earth was awesome because I don’t think I will ever see it gain in my life. Although I could only see Uranus as a small ball, I could still tell the difference in viewing a planet versus a star.”
“I also thought it was very interesting to think that the dome itself, with the moving roof, had to be fixed by using shot puts to make the roof spin. It just shows how innovative, but simple, technology can be sometimes … one of the other things that amazed me on this trip was the large database of planets, stars, and galaxies that one telescope can hold … and the computer database can determine where it is in the night sky just based strictly on the code in the computer. It really still baffles me sometimes how advanced technology has really become, and this is a prime example of it. It could pick out anything in the night sky based on the coding.”
“Tom was the man who operated and explained the smaller telescope (12-inch Schmidt-Cass) to us he also told us that he has a telescope very similar to that one at his home and that at his home he has programs that allow him to print and save what he sees through the telescope similar to the Project Slooh assignment we had been attempting in class. He had a view photos on his cell phone and showed them to us, the photos were of the Andromeda Galaxy, and of the planet Jupiter. While we were observing through the telescope with Tom he showed some different objects in the sky, we saw Jupiter as well as the four moons around it, we looked at the Andromeda Galaxy, we also observed the eye of the bull, and with his laser pointer he should us the Orion Galaxy and some of the main points in it such as Orion’s belt and shield. In order for us to view Jupiter Tom had to manually move the telescope to the direction of Jupiter because the machine was not working properly and said it was under the horizon when we could clearly see it with our naked eye.”
“When I got there it was quiet and cold, but all these feelings were put aside when I gazed up, towards to the sky. The stars looked like small holes of light that were punched through our sky, and their locations all seemed to be in the right space … After I finished looking at the objects Tom was showing us I started to walk back. On my way back to the car I can see a feint light behind the trees, and above again were the bright and perfect stars I saw when I arrived.”
“Looking through the telescope was an experience all in itself. When the telescope was positioned at the right coordinates, we could see Uranus. When I looked through the eye piece, the planet looked a little blue. It wasn’t very colorful, but there was a little tint to the bright planet.”
“At around 9:20 the night has ended and we were all sent back to school. Can’t deny that I was a little happy purely because I would be able to feel my toes once again after blasting the heat in the car (ha-ha). This experience showed me just how cool astronomy actually is. All the aspects of the telescopes and facts about them were truly surprising. If given the opportunity again, I would definitely go back to view the stars. However, I would want it to be in a warmer climate for sure!”
“As I walked into the building to go to the tower, there were more red lights, and it almost felt like a haunted house.” (If they only knew!)
