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| SUNDAY, MAY 26, 2019
LOWELL OBSERVATORY 125TH ANNIVERSARY
SPECIAL SECTION 1
experts to the
community
From the
Outreach programs offered by Lowell Observatory include Camps for Kids, which gives children hands-on activities to explore STEM elements. Lowell Observatory Archives
Welcoming visitors for 125 years
O
MEGAN STANLEY, EDUCATOR
ne hundred t we n t y - f i v e years is a long time to endure change and experience growth. However, Lowell Observatory and its public outreach program have done just that. Percival Lowell’s original mission for his observatory focused more on research than outreach, yet Lowell did want to openly share the results of those studies, ideally from the point of view of the person conducting the research. He thought it important to share the knowledge of the universe with the public, not hoard it in an ivory tower in which only a handful of scientists could benefit from it. Lowell wrote in his 1906 book “Mars and its Canals,” “To set forth science in a popular, that is, in a generally understandable, form is as obligatory as to present it in a more technical manner. If people are to benefit from it, it must be expressed to their comprehension.” The heart of this statement—that scientific knowledge should be shared with everyone to understand—still guides the public program today. Soon after opening in 1894, the observatory began posting notices in the Coconino Sun, inviting locals up to Mars Hill to peer through telescopes and explore the universe for themselves. The astronomical research staff guided these viewing sessions, as well as daytime tours when visitors found their way to the campus. Clyde Tombaugh’s discovery of Pluto in 1930 brought increased attention—and a comparable increase in visitation—to the observatory. The lucky visitor may even have attended a tour hosted by Tombaugh himself. The tour times and programs became more standardized as Lowell gained popularity through
The Steele Visitor Center opened in 1994. Lowell Observatory Archives the years. The Rotunda eventually served as the observatory’s visitor center, featuring historic exhibits, a small space to sell some souvenirs and a single bathroom with one toilet. And so the public program went until the late 1980s, when Sole Trustee Bill Putnam and Director Bob Millis began envisioning an expanded visitor experience. In 1991, they hired the public program’s first full-time director, Bill Buckingham, who added two dozen classes and workshops to the observatory’s public offerings. Annual attendance surged from 26,900 in fiscal year 1990-1991 to 43,267 the following year. Meanwhile, the observatory planned for a modern, dedicated facility for education. Thus was born the Steele Visitor Center, which opened during the observatory’s centennial year in 1994. The Lawrence Lowell (Pluto Discovery) Telescope was also brought from the Anderson Mesa research facility to Mars Hill, where guests could relive Pluto’s discovery. In 1995, the first full year the visitor center was open, annual attendance was up to 64,371. In the few decades since, the public program has experienced change and growth in many areas, with the addition of the 16-inch McAllister Telescope, numerous portable telescopes, summer
camps, expanded gift shop, additional parking and much more. Then there is the spectacularly successful outreach program to Native American communities, started by astronomers Deidre Hunter and Amanda Bosh more than two decades ago and still going strong. In 2018, the observatory experienced its first 100,000-plus visitor year and the need for more change and growth is stronger than ever. This fall, Lowell will open the state-of-the-art Giovale Open Deck Observatory (GODO) which features a suite of six telescopes, just for public viewing. Looking further into the future, Lowell is planning to open a new visitor center, digital theater and open-sky planetarium. One hundred twenty-five years is a long time to watch the world go by. Although a lot has changed over the decades on Mars Hill, the core of Lowell’s public outreach has remained the same. Every interaction with a visitor is an opportunity to inspire wonder, help develop critical thinking skills and imagine more than they might have originally thought possible. Percival Lowell believed that imagination was vital to science—an idea that lives on each time a child asks about exploding stars, or aliens, or if Pluto is a planet.
Sharing the knowledge discovered at the observatory was a main tenet of Percival Lowell.
Lowell Observatory’s Rotunda Museum. Lowell Observatory Archives
A story of success TEZNIE PUGH, OPERATIONS MANAGER
The Discovery Channel Telescope. Lowell Observatory Archives
It has been seven years since the First Light Ceremony at Lowell Observatory’s Discovery Channel Telescope (DCT). While the journey to that point had been a long and sometimes slow one for the team designing and building the telescope and facility, first light really marks the beginning of DCTs story, a story of success that hinged on the decisions made by the design, construction and engineering teams who have since moved on from Lowell. The team who, I’m sure, spent nights awake struggling with how to ensure the almost 30,000-pound mirror and mirror cell would move smoothly enough to meet the science requirements or how the four-inch-thick, 14-foot-diameter mirror would hold its shape well enough to deliver the desired image quality has since moved on to build other things. But their legacy lives on in this telescope. As an astronomer by trade, I’ve visited many telescopes and it strikes me every time I do just how easy and convenient
the DCT is to run, both for the operators and for the science users. The DCT has proven to be incredibly efficient, partly due to the unique design of the instrument cube which allows five instruments to simultaneously ride the telescope and instrument swaps to take no more than a few minutes. The following instruments have been used at DCT, at various times, since first light in 2012: Large Monolithic Imager (LMI): A visible wavelength camera DeVeny: A low-resolution visible wavelength spectrograph Differential Speckle Survey Instrument (DSSI): A dual-wavelength speckle interferometer Near-Infrared High-Throughput Spectrograph (NIHTS): A near-infrared low-resolution spectrograph Immersion Grating Infrared Spectrograph (IGRINS): A high-resolution infrared spectrograph Extreme Precision Spectrometer (EXPRES): A high-resolution, Please see SUCCESS, Page A11
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