The Life of an Observational Astronomer
A number of people ask me what it is like to be a professional astronomer. They often harbor a romantic misconception of someone peering through hand-held telescope to look at the stars. Nothing could be further from the truth! Many of the best telescopes in the world are larger than some houses, and the eye has been replaced by much more powerful detectors of light.
So here I will describe what a typical trip to a major astronomical facility is like. In the past decade, most of my own observing has been done at NASA's Infrared Telescope facility (IRTF), located on the top of Mauna Kea, Hawaii.
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Part of the summit of Mauna Kea. From left to right: Subaru, Keck I & II, and the IRTF. |
NASA’s IRTF |
The first thing one has to do is get there. This is done by flying into the main airports on the Big Island: Hilo or Kona. Most astronomers come via Hilo, on the “wet side” of the island.
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Mauna Kea as seen from the air. |
The view from Hilo. |
One then needs to get a vehicle (usually belonging to one of the observatories) to head up the mountain.
The initial climb is to an altitude of 9000 feet, where the dormitory facilities are located. This is where visiting astronomers eat, sleep, and network with other researchers.
After dinner, it’s up the mountain we go!
The road is made of dirt most of the way, very dusty, and often hazardous (especially near sunset & sunrise when the sun can shine directly in your eyes. There are few guardrails to stop you from driving off the side of the road.
Once at the summit, it may be necessary to unpack many crates of equipment (if you brought your own & haven’t unpacked already).
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After unpacking, one has to test the equipment to see if it is operation properly, and prepare it for mounting on the telescope.
Meanwhile, the sunsets can be quite spectacular!
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The Aerospace Corporation’s Broad-band Array Spectrograph (BASS), in the lab. The black frame is the photometer that directs the light beam to the detector. The detector is mounted in the gold plated can and filled with liquid nitrogen & helium, which is necessary for the wavelengths of light we observe at. |
Dr. Ray Russell (The Aerospace Corporation) prepares BASS for observing. |
Then we mount the instrument and get ready to observe!
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Ray & I hooking up the electronics cables for BASS. |
Dr. Dave Lynch (The Aerospace Corporation) looks
up at the final product. The mirror that collects the light is just above the
big orange telescope base |
Working at the summit of Mauna Kea can be quite challenging. With an altitude of just under 14,000 feet, the air is over 30% thinner there than at seal level. Outside temperatures hover near freezing at night, but luckily we get to work from a room that is heated
In addition to Dave & Ray, other astronomers use BASS as well.
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Dr. Heidi Hammel (Space Science Institute), an expert on the outer planets, grabs a quick bite while Ray guides the telescope for the observations. |
Everyone has a job to do. |
In almost all circumstances, the astronomer never “sees” the photons they are measuring. The telescope has no eyepiece at all! The closest we ever come is to look at the portion of the sky that our object is in using a video camera. This is how we are sure we have acquired the correct object, and are guiding the telescope to track on it correctly.
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Here we are trying to measure infrared light from a small spot on the Moon. |
If the weather is good, we will be at the summit well before sunset (in order to prepare the instrument for the night) until well past sunrise. On rare occasions, we can observe objects in the daytime if they are bright at infrared wavelengths.
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At some infrared wavelengths, the sky is fairly dark, allowing infrared-bright objects to be observed in the daytime. Here we are observing Comet Kudo-Fujikawa in the daytime. Mercury is another object often observed during daylight hours.
DO NOT DO THIS WITHOUT PROPER TRAINING & PRECAUTIONS, AS INADVERTENTLY POINTING A TELESCOPE AT THE SUN CAN CAUSE PERMAMENT DAMAGE TO YOUR EYE IF YOU HAPPEN TO BE LOOKING THROUGH THE TELESCOPE AT THE TIME!
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Then it’s time to take the instrument off for the daytime, transfer any liquid nitrogen & helium that it needs to stay cool, download the night’s data onto various storage media, and call it a “night”. A long night (12 hours plus) spent at high altitude can be exhausting. But after it’s all over, it is fun to see the shadow of the mountain being cast over the Pacific Ocean and the cloud deck that we are usually above.
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At the end of the whole observing “run”, we need to pack up the instrument and (in many cases) ship it back to Los Angeles. Suellen was a University of Cincinnati student, working on a project with me in 2001.
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And of course if things have gone well (clear skies & good instrument performance) there will be a lot of smiles on our faces.
