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ASTRONOMY DEPARTMENT AND THE HOPKINS OBSERVATORY


Faculty included Jay M. Pasachoff, Field Memorial Professor of Astronomy and Director of the Hopkins Observatory, Karen B. Kwitter, Professor of Astronomy (on leave `95-96), Marek Demianski, Visiting Professor of Astronomy, and Stephan E. Martin, Instructor in Astronomy and Observatory Supervisor.

Prof. Jay M. Pasachoff worked on the reduction of data from the Williams College expedition to India for the total solar eclipse of 24 October 1995, which was carried out in collaboration with Bryce Babcock and Kevin P. Reardon `92. Babcock is Staff Physicist and Coordinator of the Bronfman Science Center. Reardon, then on the solar-physics staff of the Institute for Astronomy of the University of Hawaii and now at the Capodimonte Observatory in Naples, Italy, is working with the Themis Solar Telescope from the Canary Islands. The observations were studied by Sebastian Diaz `98 and by Keck exchange student Matt Pickard (Colgate `98). The experiments were devoted toward studying the solar corona, addressing the problem of how the corona is heated to two million degrees kelvin. To search for high-frequency oscillations in the magnetic field that could be causing the coronal heating, they used a Princeton Instruments CCD detector, observing through a telescope, a beamsplitter, and an optical train to fix an on-band and an off-band image on the same frame. They digitized the data at 5 Hz with a Macintosh Quadra. To map the coronal temperature, they observed through a filter wheel that carried filters at special ultraviolet wavelengths chosen to maximize or minimize the differences between the coronal and photospheric spectrum; the data were recorded and digitized with a Photometrics CCD and associated computer.

Pasachoff observed the total solar eclipse of 9 March 1997 from a site in Mongolia. The eclipse was visible through clouds. Pasachoff continued his work as Chair of the Working Group on Eclipses of the International Astronomical Union.

Pasachoff with his colleagues and students planned for the total solar eclipse of 26 February 1998 in Aruba. It is hoped that all the astrophysics majors can participate in the expedition. Pasachoff received grants from the Atmospheric Sciences Division of the National Science Foundation for the oscillation experiment and from the Committee for Research and Exploration of the National Geographic Society for the ultraviolet-filter temperature experiment. Timothy McConnochie `98, who will be doing a senior thesis with him, and Mac Stocco `98, worked during the summer of 1997 in studying past data and in readying for the next eclipse. Babcock will again be a principal contributor, and Jonathan Kern of New Orleans is fabricating some new optical equipment.

Pasachoff, Babcock, and McConnochie took part of the eclipse equipment to Australia to view the occultation of a star by Neptune's moon Triton on July 18, 1997. Their work was in collaboration with Prof. James L. Elliot of M.I.T. and was sponsored by a grant to Pasachoff from the Committee for Research and Exploration of the National Geographic Society.

Brad Bissell (Vassar `98, a Keck exchange student) worked with Pasachoff and Donald A. Lubowich of the American Institute of Physics on reduction of data about their cosmic deuterium project. In particular, he analyzed data from the Kitt Peak National Observatory about gamma Pegasi and the Orion Nebula, looking for faint deuterium-alpha lines in the wings of the Balmer series' H-alpha. The deuterium-to-hydrogen ratio is a sensitive indicator of the mass density of the Universe and is an important cosmological marker.

Christina Reynolds `98 made observations during the spring of 1997 of Comet Hale-Bopp (C/1995 O1) using the Williams College 24" telescope and a special set of filters provided by NASA to have a uniform set used around the world. Stephan Martin also contributed several observations. Tim Glotch (Colgate `99, a Keck exchange student) reduced the data during the summer of 1998. The observations pinpoint gas and dust given off by the rotating nucleus of the comet, and zero in on the head.

All spring, eyes at Williams and around the world were on Hale-Bopp Comet C/1995 O1. Reynolds and Martin not only observed the comet but also showed it both to students in the astronomy classes and to hundreds of members of the general public who came to special observing sessions.

Reynolds wrote her senior thesis on the spiral galaxy M74 and the origin of structure in it. She used data she took with the Burrell Schmidt Telescope on Kitt Peak in Arizona as part of the Williams participation in a consortium to use telescope time. Some supplemental observations were taken by Prof. Debra Elmegreen of Vassar College.

Pasachoff and Reynolds also continued some studies of Burrell Schmidt observations of the double cluster h and chi Persei, as part of a joint project with Drs. Fred Seward and Nancy Evans of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Martin and Glotch worked on the data as well. The hope is that the optical observations will lead to further x-ray observations with NASA's Advanced X-Ray Facility, which is to be launched in the fall of 1998. Current x-ray observations from the Rosat (Roentgen Satellite, named after Wilhelm Roentgen, who discovered x-rays just over 100 years ago) show a variety of x-ray sources that the Williams group is trying to align with the optical observations.

Pasachoff continued his work with Prof. R. J. M. Olson of Wheaton College on images of comets in British art and science. The project was originally supported with grants from the Getty Grant Program. They completed the manuscript for a book on the subject, Fire in the Sky: Comets and Meteors, the Decisive Centuries, in Art and Science. It is to be published by Cambridge University Press. Pasachoff took a Winter Study Class to London, Cambridge, Oxford, and Bath in January 1997 to retrace his research at such institutions as the Royal Society, the Royal Astronomical Society, the Royal Greenwich Observatory, the British Museum, the Tate Gallery, The Oxford Museum of the History of Science, and the Herschel House.

Pasachoff attended the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union in Kyoto, Japan, in August 1997, continuing his work as U.S. National Representative to the Commission on the Teaching of Astronomy. He completed his term as National Lecturer of Sigma Xi with a talk at the University of Alabama at Huntsville. He became President of the Williams College Chapter of Sigma Xi, and delivered a pair of Sigma Xi Lectures at Williams, fall 1997, about the "Triumph of the Hubble Space Telescope."

Pasachoff's activities outside Williams include: Chair, Section D (Astronomy) of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (Chair-elect through mid-February; Chair since then); attended meeting in Seattle, February.

American Physical Society/American Association for the Advancement of Science Member-At-Large of the Forum on Education of the American Physical Society; attended meetings in Cambridge in October and in Washington in April.

U.S. National Representative to the Committee on the Teaching of Astronomy of the International Astronomical Union, and Member, Organizing Committee, for the meetings of this summer; attending the I.A.U. General Assembly and these Business Meetings, Kyoto, August 1997. One of two nominees for incoming Vice-President.

Chair, Working Group on Eclipses of the International Astronomical Union; steady business, mostly by e-mail; providing a report at the I.A.U. General Assembly in Kyoto, August 1997.

Education Advisory Board, American Astronomical Society; term ends, 6/97.

Astronomy News Committee, American Astronomical Society; continuing Pasachoff was asked to be a consultant on a project of Dr. Fran Bagenal of the University of Colorado for cooperative distance learning via the World Wide Web; she is submitting a proposal to the NSF. We would try out the techniques in solar-system courses at Williams.

Pasachoff's Web site (http://www.astro.williams.edu/jay) has many astronomical updates and links; it is widely accessed not only by students here but also by people elsewhere.

Pasachoff was asked to be Astronomy Editor of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. He provided the scientific material for theSolar System Explorer CD-ROM, released fall 1996 by Maris Multimedia, to be used in some classes at Williams.

Pasachoff's publications this year include: Pasachoff, Astronomy: From the Earth to the Universe, 5th ed. A major revision. Saunders College Publishing; published in August 1997 with a 1998 copyright.

Olson, Roberta J. M., and Pasachoff, Fire in the Sky: Comets and Meteors, the Decisive Centuries, in press at Cambridge University Press.

Pasachoff, A Field Guide to the Stars and Planets, updated, 1997. Some revisions provided throughout.

Golub, Leon, and Pasachoff, The Solar Corona, a text for advanced undergraduates and graduate students. Published by Cambridge University Press in August 1997. To be used by the senior seminar next spring. A project resulting from his last sabbatical at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Pasachoff gave a talk on "Pitfalls in the Science Standards," delivered at the American Physical Society meeting in Washington, D.C., April 1997. He also delivered a talk on the Hubble Space Telescope to both Albany Area Amateur Astronomers and in the Adler series at Temple Beth El, Bennington, in May 1997.

He serves on the board of Cobblestone Magazine (for children), the advisory board of World Book Encyclopedia, is a consulting editor for McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, and Yearbooks. He also serves on the advisory boards of several astronomical NSF-supported educational projects

Pasachoff received grants from the National Science Foundation for the 1998 Eclipse, and from the National Geographic Society for the 1998 Eclipse and for the July 17/18 occultation of a star by Neptune's moon Triton.

Professor Kwitter was on sabbatical leave for fiscal year 1996-1997. She continues her studies of planetary nebulae - glowing shells of gas ejected by dying stars. She is investigating their evolutionary histories, their chemical compositions and their interactions with the interstellar medium that surrounds them.

Kwitter is collaborating with Dick Henry (U. Oklahoma) on a new determination of carbon abundances in planetary nebulae. The only emission line appearing in the visible part of the spectrum is a transition in singly ionized carbon, which is intrinsically very weak compared to the normally observed emission lines in these objects; there are stronger lines available in the ultraviolet. Kwitter and Henry have used newly recalibrated archived data from the International Ultraviolet Explorer satellite to study the production of carbon in intermediate-mass stars. Summer 1996 Keck exchange student Aditi Rao (Wellesley College `99) continued the work of their predecessors. As an adjunct to the ultraviolet observations, Kwitter and Henry have obtained optical spectrophotometry on two observing runs at Kitt Peak National Observatory, using the 2.1-m telescope and Goldcam CCD spectrograph. Robert Wittenmyer `98 accompanied Kwitter, Henry, and Henry's graduate student on the most recent trip in December 1996.

Kwitter attended International Astronomical Union Symposium #180 on Planetary Nebulae in Groningen, Netherlands in August 1996, and presented a poster on her work. In February 1997, she began a three-year term on the Space Sciences panel of the National Research Council Associateship Programs Review. The NRC is the principle operating agency of the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering, and awards postdoctoral and senior associateships at national facilities.

Kwitter gave a talk on the Hubble Space Telescope to a group of Williams alumni in Worcester in May 1997. She developed a new course, Astronomy 211, on astronomical observation and data reduction techniques, to be taught in fall 1997.

The following papers are either submitted or in press: Buell, J.F., Henry, R.B.C., Baron, E., and Kwitter, K.B., "On the Origin of Planetary Nebulae K648 in Globular Cluster M15," Astrophysical J., submitted.

Henry, R.B.C., Kwitter, K.B., and J. Buell, "Toward an Understanding of Nucleosynthesis Patterns in Intermediate-Mass Stars," in Planetary Nebulae, IAU Symposium #180, ed. (Dordrecht: Reidel), 1997, in press..

Jacoby, G.H., Morse, J., Fullton, L., Kwitter, K., and Henry, R.B.C., "The Planetary Nebulae in NGC 6441 and Pal 6," Astrophysical J., submitted.

Kwitter, K.B., and Henry, R.B.C. "A New Look at Carbon Abundances in Planetary Nebulae. III., Astrophysical J., submitted. Marek Demianski, Visiting Professor, gave a talk on "Life on Mars" in Pittsfield, MA 1996. He also attended the Observation of Radio Pulsars in Torun, Poland, in January 1997.

Demianski published papers entitled "Not so Simple Universe," Contemporary Mathematics, 203, 193, 1997; and "Cosmological Background of Gravitational Waves," Banach Center Publications, Vol. 41, Part II, 23, 1997. He has submitted the following papers for publication: "The Dynamics of Twisted Accretion Disk Around a Kerr Black Hole," Astronomy and Astrophysics (with P. Iranov); and "Formation of Super Large Scale Structure and Large Scale Bias," Astrophysical Journall (with A. G. Doroshkevich).

He gave talks entitled: "Formation of Super Large Scale Structure and the Dark Matter" at the Texas Conference, Chicago, December 1996 (with A. G. Doroshkevich); "Formation of Super Large Scale Structure and Large Scale Bias" (with A. G. Doroshkevich); and "Generation of Turbulence in a Plasma Cloud Illuminated by Hard Rays" (with A. M. Beloborodov) at the Marcel Grossmann Conference, Jerusalem, June 1997.

Steve Martin continues to maintain and upgrade the observatory equipment and computers. An upgrade of the 24" telescope's GAM (Guide Acquire Module) was completed last summer, and a higher-capacity cooling system for the observatory's CCD system was installed in June 1997. A new Exabyte tape-archive system was also installed on the observatory's image-processing workstation in May 1997.

Under the guidance of Martin, the observatory continues to be used in support of the astronomy curriculum. Over 150 introductory astronomy students completed over 900 observations of celestial objects over the course of the academic year. These included observations, photographs, and CCD images of the sun, moon, and comet Hale-Bopp and many nebulae and galaxies.

Along with Martin, the 24" telescope was used by Christina Reynolds `97 to obtain CCD images of comet Hale-Bopp. Hopkins Observatory was one of 50 sites worldwide selected by NASA to receive a specially designed set of comet filters for observations of the comet. Observations were made during the peak of the comet's brightness from late March through the middle of April and are being reduced and analyzed by summer 1997 Keck exchange student Timothy Glotch (Colgate University `99). Initial analysis of the head of the comet reveals a jet of material from the nucleus which appears at different orientations over several nights. This is consistent with observations for other observatories which report a similar jet with a rotation period of approximately 11 hours.

Under the direction of Martin, the observatory held several successful open houses for the public. Open houses tor the lunar eclipses in October and March were well attended and provided views of the moon through a variety of the observatory's telescopes. A series of open houses in March and April for observing comet Hale-Bopp at the observatory drew record numbers of visitors from the local community. The events provided up to 250 people a night with views of the comet through the observatory's telescopes and binoculars. For many of them, this was their first look at the sky through an astronomical telescope.

Martin took over responsibility for maintaining the World Wide Web pages for the Astronomy department. Also, for Saunders College Publishing, he maintains Pasachoff On-Line, a site devoted to Pasachoff's introductory astronomy textbook, Astronomy: From the Earth to the Universe. Martin also developed web pages for each of the introductory astronomy courses. These pages contain links to useful astronomy sites and provide a forum for students to display images that they have taken with the observatory's CCD system and photographic cameras as part of their observing projects. There is even a page dedicated to photographs of Comet Hale-Bopp taken during the spring of 1997.

During the summer of 1997, the following exchange students were in residence at Williams, sponsored by the Keck Northeast Astronomy Consortium (Williams, Wellesley, Wesleyan, Vassar, Middlebury, Colgate, Haverford and Swarthmore): Kerrie McKinstry (Wellesley `99) working with Karen Kwitter; Tim Glotch (Colgate `98) working with Steve Martin; and Brad Bissell (Vassar `98), working with Jay Pasachoff. Williams students on campus working on research in the summer of 1997 are James Bates `98, working with Karen Kwitter; Mac Stocco `98, working with Jay Pasachoff, and Tim McConnochie `98, working with Jay Pasachoff.

Student roof TA's, responsible for operating the telescope, participating in the research projects and assisting introductory students with assignments, included Blake Bear `99, Laura Brenneman `00, Erik Klemetti `99, Dan Anello `98, Craig Westerland `99, Christina Reynolds `97, Adrian Ludwig `99, Tim McConnochie `98, and Jim Bates `98.

This year's show at the Milham Planetarium was entitled "Exploring the Williamstown Sky." Shows were presented by Christina Reynolds `97, MacGregor Stocco `98 and James Bates `98. Woody Printz, department volunteer, also gave Planetarium shows. Summer shows were given by MacGregor Stocco `98, James Bates `98, Kerrie McKinstry (Wellesley `99), Tim Glotch (Colgate `98), and Brad Bissell (Vassar `98). Special attention was given to Comet Hale-Bopp, which was even more spectacular than last year's Comet Hyakutake.

Student Papers: 6th Annual Keck Student Conference

Laura Brenneman `99
Thomas Balonek (Colgate University), advisor
"Determining Orbital Data and Parallax Through Asteroid Photometry"
Timothy McConnochie `98
Bonnie Buratti (Jet Propulsion Laboratory), advisor
"Lunar Transient Phenomena: What do the Clementine Images Reveal?"
Ruth O'Gorman `97
Marek Demianski, advisor
"Pulsar Emission Mechanisms"
Christina Reynolds `97
Karen Kwitter, advisor
"Improvement of Hopkins Observatory Telescopes"
MacGregor Stocco `98
Steve Martin, advisor
"The Mechanics of Astronomy"
Robert Wittenmyer `98
William Herbst (Wesleyan University), advisor
"On the Reliability of Rotation Periods Reported for T Tauri Stars"

ASTRONOMY COLLOQUIA

[Colloquia are held jointly with Physics. See Physics section for additional listings.]
Prof. Marek Demianski, Visiting Professor - Williams College
"Origin and Evolution of Structure in the Universe"
Dr. Paul Green, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
"Blasts from the Past: Probing the Nuclei of Quasars"
Prof. Jonathan Arons `65, University of California, Berkeley - Astronomy Department
"Relativistic Shock Waves and the Excitation of the Crab Nebula"

POSTGRADUATE PLANS OF ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS MAJORS

ASTROPHYSICS
Christina L. Reynolds
Graduate school in Astronomy at Dartmouth College


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