Howdy Star Gazers and welcome to this episode
of Star Trails. My name is Drew and I'll be your
guide to the night sky for the week of April
the 5th through the 11th. This month we're going
to explore some of the scientific processes we
use as astronomers. We'll discuss how data is
collected and used. and how computers and programming
are part of that. And to kick off the month,
we have a different sort of show on tap for this
week. I'm going to interview the director of
a local observatory to spark our discussion on
visual astronomy. Later in the show, I'll discuss
some of the famous observatories around the world
and their discoveries. Also, we'll check in with
this week's sky. Whether you're tuning in from
the backyard or the balcony, I'm glad you're
here. So grab a comfortable spot under the night
sky and let's get started. Since Galileo created
his telescope in the early 1600s, the observatory,
that is a building containing a telescope, has
been one of the primary tools for studying the
night sky. Eventually, radio telescopes would
enter the picture, along with space telescopes
that far exceed the capabilities of their terrestrial
brethren. Even so, the classic domed observatory
is still what comes to mind for many of us when
we think of astronomy. As a kid who enjoyed stargazing,
my parents would often drive me past the Melton
Memorial Observatory on the campus of the University
of South Carolina in Columbia, in hopes of seeing
the telescope inside peeking out of the dome's
shutter. While I never spotted any astronomy
in progress, the observatory represented a long
-term goal for me. Eventually, I would attend
school here, and when I arrived that fall, The
first class I signed up for was astronomy. It
would be a few more months before I managed to
get into a lab class inside Melton. In November
of 1993, I finally entered the observatory and
a childhood dream was realized when I peered
at the moon through the main telescope, which
is painted in garnet red to match the university's
colors. Of course, reality doesn't always match
expectations. When I was a kid, I didn't really
understand how bad light pollution could be because
I didn't live in a major metropolitan area. Once
at school, I was disappointed to learn that we
weren't going to be peering deep into space because
light pollution here is quite severe. Yet Melton
Observatory still stands and, more importantly,
is still used today. Its classical architecture
is a nod to historic campus observatories dating
back hundreds of years. So I decided to contact
Melton's director and learn more about the nearly
100 -year -old observatory and how the community
uses it today. Here's my interview with director
Martin Bowers. Right now I'm in Melton Memorial
Observatory on the campus of the University of
South Carolina and I'm joined by Observatory
Director Martin Bowers. Welcome to the show.
Thanks for having me. Thanks for being on here.
So this observatory has been around for nearly
a century. What's the story behind how it was
built? Well, my understanding is that Dr. Melton
was the president of the university from 22 to
26 and he felt the need to have a real observatory
because at that time, they had a telescope, but
they'd have to set it up and put it away every
time they used it because they didn't have a
true observatory. And that's a lot of work. I
know as an amateur observer myself with my own
equipment, when I do imaging especially, that's
a lot of work. So we said, if we're going to
teach astronomy, we need a proper observatory.
But coming up with the money even 100 years ago
was a problem for a new building. So he convinced
a good friend and alumnus named Edwin Sibles
to donate the bulk of the money. And they built
this building and dedicated it in 1928. But unfortunately,
Dr. Melton had passed away before it was completed.
So Mr. Sibles dedicated it in memoriam of his
good friend, Dr. Melton. And that's why we call
it the Melton Memorial Observatory. Exactly.
So the question I'm sure everybody wants to know
is what kind of gear is in Melton? Well we still
have, my understanding is the original telescope
and mount, it's a 16 inch cassegrain, very long
focal length, I think its focal ratio is f16.
So it does really well on planets and craters
on the moon, but that's our primary scope. We
also have a number of portable telescopes. Usually
we set up a couple of Celestron C8s, eight -inch
Schmidt -Cassegrain as well. Okay. How did you
become the director of this observatory? Well,
I'm a member of the Midlands Astronomy Club.
I've been doing this now for eight years. And
so eight years ago, the club was contacted by
one of the astronomy professors who said, hey,
we need someone to serve as the director. And
so I applied for the job because it sounded fun.
So the university reached out to the club and
said, do you have anybody who could? Yes. Okay.
And there are several members of the club who
have served stints in this role before and they
were helpful at resources because I had to ask
them what was going on. So they were very useful
assets for me. I find Melton really interesting
because like a lot of universities years ago,
they would build their observatories right here
on the campus and we're in the middle of a major
metropolitan area. So clearly this isn't an ideal
place for an observatory, but what role does
a historic observatory like this play in the
community? Yeah, yeah. Our light pollution is
pretty dreadful. Just a few years ago, they upgraded
all the street lights on campus and used brighter
ones. Okay. They just made it worse. But we could
still see bright objects. It serves a role as
part of the science outreach. I mean, I think
that's why the university wanted to keep it going
with the public viewing sessions, which we hold
every clear Monday night. And we invite the public
and we get a lot of outsiders come in. And we
also get contacted throughout the year by different
schools and scouting groups and other organizations.
wanting a private tour, and so we do our best
to meet that need as well. Well, it's a beautiful
building. It looks like a classic observatory.
When you see it, it's very striking, and you
want to stop and know, hey, what goes on inside
of there. Yes, it is the best part of the fun.
It is a really cool old building. Often I'll
have students come through here and they say,
you know, I'm a senior. I've walked by this building
for four years. I thought it was just some kind
of monument. I didn't know it was in use. Right,
right. You know, and the other interesting thing
is this being an urban observatory, it's not
even the only one of its kind within about a
two mile radius. If you go down the road a little
bit, the state museum has the Boeing observatory,
which is another really nice facility. in the
midst of light pollution. Yeah, yeah. They also
have an old telescope. They have an old Alvin
Clark refractor. And my understanding is it was
originally owned by Columbia University long
ago and had been mothballed for a long time.
And somehow they convinced them to donate it.
They received a donation of a lot of classic
old telescopes. It's really a really cool exhibit
that they have there. Right. And I know you mentioned
this before, but even though we are in this heavy
urban area, there are still things that are worth
looking at. I'm sure the moon, the planets, what
do people enjoy looking at even in these types
of urban environment? Well, of course we always
do planets. I think the most interesting is Saturn
is to watch people's reaction because one thing
I've learned, there are a lot of people who come
here and it's the first time they've ever looked
through a telescope. And I forget that sometimes
that there are people who've just never had that
opportunity. And when we had Saturn up, More
than one night there there students to say oh
wow you can see the rings right that can't be
real they didn't know that. you could do that,
that they thought you needed a space telescope
or some mountaintop massive instrument to see
the rings of Saturn. No, you can see it in a
small telescope and it's beautiful. Yeah, one
of my favorite stories from history is Galileo
building his own telescope and drawing Saturn
with rings. So even in those times, we've been
able to see that. But people don't realize that
today, do they? There's a lot of folks who haven't
had that opportunity to look through a telescope.
I think that's part of the purpose of the campus
for the arts and sciences is to educate people
about science, to promote scientific knowledge
and understanding. The universe is amazing. It's
beautiful. There's a lot to learn. There's a
lot we're still learning, and it's fun. It's
beautiful. Come have a look. What can people
expect when they come on a Monday night? Well,
so, of course, we just had a time zone change,
so that will move our our starting time back
to nine to 11, but we have a two hour viewing
window and, um, we always try to find at least
three different objects. So we'll put the big
scope on whatever's good right now. Jupiter is
good. So, uh, or sometimes we'll put it on the
moon. Right. And then we have two C eights that
we'll set up on two other objects. The Orion
Nebula is still up. So that's, that's worth a
look. You can see the trapezium and you can see
some of the nebula around it. Right. Um, but
we invite people to come up, have a look. I have
some great student assistants that help. run
some of the instruments. And we invite people
to have a look, discuss. Some people like to
stay and talk and they have questions and they
want to discuss it. We kind of touched on this
before when you were saying people looking at
Saturn, what sorts of reactions do you see from
people the first time they look through some
of these telescopes here? Well, you know, it's
funny because anyone who does imaging learns
to avoid the moon because when the moon's up,
it's like it lights up the sky, it makes it harder.
Craters on the moon are easy target, and they're
actually quite. pretty. And there are a lot of
folks, they look at craters on the moon, they're
just blown away. They had no idea. They thought
you had to be in orbit around the moon to see
something like that. And Saturn and Jupiter are
always beautiful as well. Some people are just
stunned. Some people said, that's not real. You've
got a sticker in there. You can't be looking
at it. And I have to say, no, you see that bright
light right there that looks like a bright star?
That's Saturn. You're looking at it. That's incredible.
You really do forget that people maybe don't
think about these things, and like you said,
they assume you have to have Hubble or Voyager
2 or something to see these places. Yeah. Since
the inception of Melton, have there been any
big research projects, big discoveries made here?
I don't know if they've had any discoveries with
data collected from here. I do know at one time
they've had different student projects. There
was a some kind of spectroscope that someone
made trying to get stellar spectra. I've worked
with some students doing special projects like
variable star study, building a light curve of
stars, but I don't know of any new discoveries
made from data here. I do know some of the faculty
are very actively involved in research and get
time on the Hubble or the Webb telescope as part
of their research projects. So there is active
research done by some of the faculty members,
but I'm not aware of any data taken from this
instrument that went into a study, but there
could have been. You kind of mentioned it just
then, you said some of the faculty out here are
using some remote. observing or Hubble or Webb
or, you know, Atacama, places like that. What
is the value of a hands -on, like in -person
facility like this today? You know, it's interesting.
I had this discussion with some of the professors
here, the astronomy professors, that professional
astronomers don't do hands -on because they just
submit a proposal. They get time and then someone
mails them a pointer to their data. Here's how
you download your data. But there is value in
hands -on. I think that's still useful. It's
helpful to understand how the sky moves, how
objects move within it, how the telescope works
and to learn your way around the sky. And the
best way to do that is to get down and dirty,
get your hands on a scope and start pointing
it and through it. I think there's still value
in that, and certainly from a hobbyist's point
of view, just appreciating the beauty and wonder
of the sky and the objects in it. Getting personally
involved by actually operating a telescope is
a part of that. It helps you become connected
to it. If someone listening wants to start observing,
what should they do? You know, I get that question
a lot because especially a common problem is
you get a parent who has a child who's very interested
in astronomy and they want to buy a telescope
for them. And the problem is if you go too cheap,
you'll get an instrument that's so frustrating
to use, you'll just crush the joy out of your
budding young scientists there. And yet you don't
want to spend a lot of money on a scope that
maybe they'll use a few times and then lose interest.
So the best advice is join the local astronomy
club. Locally the Midlands astronomy club is
here in Columbia. There you'll meet a bunch of
enthusiasts who are very knowledgeable users
with a lot of telescopes. You can go to their
star parties, look through their equipment and
get an idea of what how much things cost, how
they work, what you think might be useful for
you. Some people never even buy their own telescope.
They just go to the club and look through the
club scopes and come to our Melton Monday night
public viewing events. And we'll show you some
views through scopes and talk to you about it.
There are a lot of options. It all depends on
how much money you're willing to spend. And like
I say, the best way is to get into it with the
club and, or come to our meetings. You spend
a lot of time helping people out here and introducing
them to the universe. What do you think astronomy
does? To the way people see their place in the
in the world Well, you know it it's funny you
were talking about, you know Galileo and in the
early days of telescopes Today what we know is
the the universe is vastly stupefying Lee immense.
Yes much bigger in its extent than our predecessors
could have possibly imagined. And we're learning
it's filled with amazing things and they're beautiful.
And it's part of the wonder to understand just
how enormous, incredibly enormously huge the
universe is and how beautiful it is and all the
things we're still learning about it. That's
part of the joy and wonder of I mean, that's
that's why it's been a hobby for me is it's exciting.
It's beautiful. And it's fun. And so that's why
I do it. And that's what I'd like to share with
our guests. Hey, look at something amazing. I
love that. Martin, thanks so much for being on
the show. This has been enlightening and it's
always a pleasure to come visit Melton. You're
welcome any time. You and your listeners to come
to the Melton Observatory on a clear Monday night.
We post our status every Monday morning on the
Melton Facebook page. Okay. Going to be open
or not based on the weather or any other events
going on. Appreciate it. Thank you. Yes, sir.
I'd like to thank Martin for giving us that interview,
and I'll include links to Melton in the show
notes if you happen to find yourself in Columbia,
South Carolina on a Monday evening and want to
come visit. After a quick break, I'll be back
to discuss some historic observatories and their
discoveries, and we'll check in with this week's
night sky. Stay with us. Welcome back. Before
we had massive domes perched on mountaintops,
before we had radio dishes the size of stadiums,
and before we sent telescopes into orbit, astronomy
was much simpler, and a much more personal endeavor.
In 1609, Galileo Galilei pointed a small handmade
telescope toward the night sky, and everything
changed. He saw mountains on the moon, proving
it wasn't a perfect celestial sphere. He discovered
four moons orbiting Jupiter, showing that not
everything revolved around the Earth. And he
discovered the phases of Venus, which supported
the idea that planets orbit the Sun. With a device
no more powerful than a modern pair of binoculars,
Galileo helped overturn centuries of belief.
And for a long time, astronomy stayed close to
that spirit. small telescopes, individual observers,
and handwritten notes and sketches. But as our
questions about the universe grew bigger, our
tools had to grow with them. By the 17th and
18th centuries, dedicated observatories began
to appear. Places like Paris Observatory and
Royal Observatory Greenwich. Astronomers used
them to map the sky, track planetary motion,
and even define time itself. The line running
through Greenwich became the prime meridian,
the reference point for global navigation. And
as telescopes improved, observatories became
more ambitious. Bigger lenses and larger mirrors.
Eventually, these quiet domes would reshape our
understanding of the cosmos. Let's take a quick
tour of a few of the heavy hitters. High above
Los Angeles sits Mount Wilson Observatory, and
this place fundamentally changed how we see the
universe. In the 1920s, astronomer Edwin Hubble
used the 100 -inch Hooker telescope here to prove
that spiral nebula weren't clouds inside our
galaxy. They were entire galaxies of their own.
That one discovery expanded the universe overnight,
and it didn't stop there. Hubble also discovered
that galaxies are moving away from us, which
means the universe is expanding. That realization
is the foundation of modern cosmology. A few
decades later, just down the road, Palomar Observatory
took things even further. Its 200 -inch HAIL
telescope was, for a long time, the most powerful
telescope on Earth. Palomar helped map the large
-scale structure of the universe, contributed
to the discovery of quasars, those bright distant
objects powered by supermassive black holes,
and played a role in refining how we measure
cosmic distances. For much of the 20th century,
if something big was discovered in astronomy,
there's a good chance Palomar was involved. On
the summit of a dormant volcano in Hawaii sits
one of the best observing sites on Earth, Mauna
Kea Observatories. This is home to some of the
most advanced telescopes ever built, including
the Keck Observatory. From here, astronomers
have studied the atmospheres of distant exoplanets,
measured the motion of stars orbiting the black
hole at the center of our galaxy, and pushed
deeper into the early universe than ever before.
It's one of the places where modern astronomy
is happening right now. And then we left Earth
entirely. The Hubble Space Telescope removed
the atmosphere from the equation. Hubble gave
us the deep field images, revealing thousands
of galaxies in what looked like empty patches
of sky. It helped determine the age of the universe,
refined the expansion rate, and gave us some
of the most iconic images ever taken. For many
people, Hubble made the universe feel real. High
in the Atacama Desert, one of the driest places
on Earth, sits Paranal Observatory. This is home
to the Very Large Telescope, operated by the
European Southern Observatory. Here, astronomers
combine multiple telescopes to act like one giant
instrument, allowing them to peer deeper into
space with precision. From Paranol, we've studied
distant galaxies, explored the structure of the
Milky Way, and even helped image exoplanets around
other stars. All the observatories we've mentioned
in this episode are for visual astronomy, stargazing,
photon by photon. We'll get into radio astronomy
and other methods of data collection later this
month. This week the moon starts off bright as
a waning gibbous washing out much of the sky
early on But night by night it rises later and
fades giving us gradually darker skies as the
week goes on In the evening, you can't miss Venus
blazing in the western sky after sunset. It's
the brightest object out there by far Jupiter
is still hanging on in the southwest almost directly
overhead If you're up before sunrise, Mercury,
Mars, and Saturn are in a tidy line, but they're
sitting very low on the horizon and clustered
near the morning sun, so they'll be a bit of
a challenge. Overhead, we're now fully in the
spring sky. Leo is prominent, with its bright
star, Regulus, while Virgo begins to rise later
in the evening. Cancer sits between them, faint,
but home to one of the best binocular targets
in the sky. That's the Beehive Cluster, also
known as Messier 44, an excellent target this
week, especially with the bright moon early on.
You can also try for the Globular Cluster M3,
and later in the week, as skies improve, galaxies
like M81, M82, and even the Whirlpool Galaxy
M51 come into reach. And there's a bit of a wild
card this week, a potential comet. C2026A1 may
be visible low in the western sky just after
sunset. This one is really dim right now at magnitude
13 .6. If it survives its journey around the
sun, it could brighten dramatically. Check an
app like Stellarium for the exact location. We'll
be keeping an eye on it in the coming weeks.
As I record this, the crew of Artemis II has
been in space for nearly 24 hours, on a journey
around the moon and back. Humanities return to
deep space after more than half a century. While
we observe the stars from here on Earth, they're
out there experiencing it directly. For most
of us, astronomy begins by looking up, but it
doesn't always end there. That's going to do
it for this week. If you found this episode interesting,
please share it with a friend who might enjoy
it. The easiest way to do that is by sending
folks to our website, StarTrails .Show. And if
you'd like to support the show, use the link
on the site to buy me a coffee. That really helps.
Be sure to follow Star Trails on Blue Sky and
YouTube. Links are in the show notes. Until we
meet again beneath the stars, clear skies everyone.