MMG and DDG Travels: From the Heavens to the Desert Floor

Whatever the Blog date, this took place on Monday, April 13, 2009.

Growing up I did not have much interest in scientific things and less interest in "space". All of that changed while I was in college and a friend asked me to go to Cape Canaveral with him to see the launch of the first American into space. May 5, 1961, Alan Shepherd took a 300 mile sub-orbital ride from Cape Canaveral, later the Kennedy Space Center.

It seemed like a huge deal at the time -- first American in space -- successful launch from the Florida coast and recovery at sea -- and it really launched the US space program. But by today's standards it was a tiny first step. After watching the spectacular launch, by the time my friend and I had walked back to the the car, Shepherd was safely aboard the recovery ship! You can read more about Alan Shepherd and the space program by clicking on his name above.

The above is just to explain why MMG and I went north on SR 118 through Fort Davis and on to the McDonald Observatory, then continued on SR 188 to SR 166 all the way through the Davis Mountains and back to SR 17 then north to Fort Davis where we went south to the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute, then back north to Fort Davis, south on SR 17 to Marta where we turned east on US 67-90 to Alpine.

Our first objective was the McDonald Observatory, home of the 5th largest telescope in the world, the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, with a 433 inch mirror, as well as the Harlan J. Smith telescope, 107 inch mirror, third largest in the world when built in 1968, and the Otto Struve telescope, 82 inch mirror, second largest in the world when it was built in 1938-39.

This remote west Texas location was chosen for the construction of this facility because it offered the darkest night skies in the US.

You can read all about it and a host of space related subjects here.

Here's what came into view as we approached to observatory:

Three Observatory Domes

Our tour started with a visit to the Visitor Center where my image of the astronomer peering through the lenses of the telescope looking at far away galaxies the same way we look at the moon through our binoculars or telescope was soon shattered. Nearly all of the light scenes captured by the Observatory's telescopes are led by fiber optic cables to a spectrometer which analyzes the light to determine the source's temperature(s), motion toward or away from Earth, and a host of other information. This information is fed to the astronmer's PC monitor for his/her edification. I cannot adequately explain how it works, but you can get a good explanation here.

The highlight of the tour was a visit to the 107 inch Harlen J. Smith telescope. We were warned to dress warmly as the temperature inside the observatory is controlled to closely match the expected temperature for the coming night so that when the observing window is opened there is no chance for the telescope to "fog up". The expected night tempurature was bout 40.

The following pictures will convey the size of the telescope.

Saturn ready for blastoff?

Nope. Just the Telescope. Tour guide in foreground.

160 tons controlled by the yellow box in his hand.

The tour guide showed how the telescope is movable in all directions. When it rotates, the whole top of the building moves! Makes sense if it's going to be able to see through the observation slot, but I hadn't thought about and it was a surprise when the dome began to move, probably because the track was about 3 feet behind our heads!

Now on to the big one! Too big to even get a picture! Here's one of the explanatory display.