Back to the Telescope Again

 

It’s been over 2 years since we’ve been able to travel to observe, but in early October, Kim Ward-Duong (Smith College) and I were able to bring three students to observe in person from Waimea, Hawaii on the Keck I telescope. 

While I have certainly come to appreciate the convenience of remote observing during the pandemic, I do think that much of the pedagogical value for students is lost when we’re not able to collect data at a telescope in person.

Undergraduate Jingyi Zhang (Smith College) and graduate student Jada Louison (UMass) operate the Keck LRIS instrument

Observing with my undergraduate advisor Frank Winkler at Cerro Tololo in 2003 was the reason I became an observational astronomer. I learned an immeasurable amount from interactions with observatory staff and telescope operators, from seeing and operating the instrument myself, and from being able to take in all of the various inputs (weather monitors, telescope telemetry, seeing data, instrument controls) together with the data in real time. Even more importantly, being at the observatory really helped me to form an identity as an astronomer. I have very fond memories of receiving a letter addressed to “Dr. Brutlag” with my observer’s dorm keys (I was a junior in college at the time), of eating dinner and chatting with astronomers from all over the world, of having an experience that felt special and unique to this profession, and of seeing the southern sky for the first time. 

I think that this identity-formation aspect is an underappreciated piece of the complex debate about whether we should continue to travel to observe in astronomy, one that I hope we don’t forget. My personal view is that most observing should be done remotely, as this increases access and reduces the environmental impact and expense of long-distance air travel, but I hope that we’ll preserve in-person observing capabilities so that I can continue to give my students these sorts of experiences.  

OK back to the science!

A fun development in our lab in 2020 was our first approved program for NASA Keck Telescope time. We have been slowly building up a sample of UV-optical spectroscopic observations of accreting brown dwarfs, which we are using to build a better bridge between our good understanding of star formation processes and our very poor understanding of formation and growth processes for the protoplanets we’re beginning to detect with high-contrast imaging. We were granted two half nights on Keck this semester to continue this program, and it was a pleasure to be able to do so with three excellent students - Sarah Betti and Jada Louison, graduate students at UMass and Jingyi Zhang, an undergraduate at Smith College. 

Left to right: Kate, Jada, Kim, Jingyi, and Sarah with the Keck Telescopes on Mauna Kea

Before signing off on this post, I’d feel remiss without acknowledging that Mauna Kea is a sacred site for Native Hawaiians, and that its colonial history is dark and depressing. The Native Hawaiian community has been wronged by astronomers, and the rift between the communities can only be narrowed by the astronomical community making hard sacrifices regarding occupation of the mountain. As an observational astronomer, I have very mixed feelings about utilizing Mauna Kea for observing, something that I think is important to discuss with any students who we bring on site.  Below are two resources that Kim and I have used to discuss these issues with students. 

 
Kate Follette