Photograph by Paloma Torres
the buildings to the telescope. But the cord kept getting cut. The cord was buried, but not deep enough, apparently – so a truck would roll over it and it would break. Later I would drive my car up and plug the telescope into my cigarette lighter, but I accidentally slammed my car door on the cord. So that plan ended. Now we have a battery pack. I get that fully charged, and it sits right under the telescope. When was the observatory built?
I don’t know off the top of my head. [Former Science Master] Giff Havens built it. The observatory is literally the top of a grain silo, and you need to rotate it into position by shoving it. It’s student-powered. So I stand inside and say, “OK, push that way. Keep going... Keep going... Now…
stop. Nope. Too far. Push it back.” It also has really interesting acoustics in there. Amazing echoes. So kids usually make silly noises. My feeling is, hey, whatever makes it fun.
bright; they’re pretty easy to find. The students sketch what they see. Then they have to go and look and find an image of it on the web and compare.
How many students can you fit into the dome of a grain silo?
I did. I was of one of those many people behind the scenes who helped make it run. My job was to compile the data in a format the astronomers could use. I was hired six months before Hubble was launched. Then, after it was in orbit, on my 23rd birthday, they announced the problem with the mirror.
Not too many, about six or seven. Usually some of them are standing outside. How large is the telescope?
It’s an 8-inch diameter reflector. It’s sort of your typical amateur astronomer telescope with a bunch of eyepieces. What can be seen on a clear night with an 8-inch telescope?
You’ve got the galaxies. We look at two different star clusters. They’re pretty
You once worked on the Hubble.
Terrible birthday present.
Yes. The Hubble had a spherical aberration. Basically the mirror wasn’t ground properly, so the Hubble couldn’t focus.
SPRING
2012
17