The Last Stargazers

The Enduring Story of Astronomy's Vanishing Explorers

Emily Levesque 2020 Beaverton Library 520.92 LEV

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Levesque

• https://www.emlevesque.com/

• https://astro.washington.edu/people/emily-levesque

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_supergiant

• LBVs = Luminous blue variable

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorne%E2%80%93%C5%BBytkow_object

Very enjoyable and interesting book, an astronomer's "coming of age" story, and the transition of astronomy from eyepieces to data-mining software.

• Introduction, using the Subaru telescope on Maunakea Hawai'i, 14000 ft elevation, 57% oxygen

  • loud noise, mechanical support failure, 4 foot 400 pound secondary mirror still attached
  • "I broke the telescope" stories, Green Bank WV 100 meter radio telescope, 1988 collapse, replaced 2001

• p001 May 2004 MIT sophomore, Arizona Kitt Peak, study red super-giants with Phil Massey

• p005 1986 parents teachers Taunton MA Celestron C8
• p007 Geoffrey T. William's Planetron books
• p008 7yo, Astronomy night, Wheaton College professor says "Take as much mathematics as you can"

• p016 2002 MIT matriculation, first physics course Really Hard, prof Frank Wilcek

  • two blackboard mathematical proof, "the simplicity of this is deceptive"

• p019 sophomore observational astronomy course by Jim Elliot died 2021/3/3 67yo

• p019 George R. Wallace Jr. Observatory Westford MA supporter Wallace MIT 1913, dedicated 1971

• p023 Jan 2004 visits Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, worked with Sally Oey

• p024 first paper, largest observed star 1500 R☉, 7 AU, Jupiter 5.2 AU

• p027 George Wallerstein, 86 yo emeritus at UW 2016

• p028 fewer than 100 top notch telescopes around the world
• p033 1 meter naked eye Eta Carinae
• p034-38 Kodak photographic plates
• p039 astronomer handling plates at prime focus, assistant moving the dome
• p039-49 plate telescope stories, p49 CCD imagers

• p050 Palomar 200 inch largest before 1975 Russian 6 meter 1975, surpassed by Keck in 1990

• p056 Travelling astronomers; dressed too warm, awake late; departing pale and half-asleep
• p057 newbie drivers on steep summit roads. High-centering over only curb on the mountain, fortuitous tow truck
• p064 nights (cold, moon) assigned by target: blue, no moon; IR, moon no problem. photometric? excellent. weather?
• p065 photometric? excellent. weather? reschedule, retravel, months later
• p066 wacky superstitions, clothing, food, tables in the cafeteria

• p070 computers point the telescopes, astronomers are absolutely terrible finding things by eyeball in the night sky

• p071 worse than wasting time is observing the wrong thing

• p071 best telescopes cost $15K to $55K per night to operate
• p072 raw data looks awful before processing
• p072 imaging (with filters) or spectroscopy

• p074 reducing the data, removing contamination such as varied pixel sensitivity

• p075 "leaf blower" reductions during observation to ensure all is going well
• p076 romance gets you to 3am, then energetic music to combat haze
• p077 classical music or no music? untrustworthy
• p078 first Las Campanas observations canceled by wind, but naked eye viewing awesome
• p082 earthquake

• p085 Apache Point Observatory mirrors sandblasted with gypsum sand

• p086 Canary Island telescopes and Saharan dust / lightning
• p088 2003 Canberra brushfires devastated Mount Stromlo Observatory
• p088 "There's about to be an earthquake" because tiny tremors make stars skitter
• p089 shaking stops, immediately return to dead center

• p089 vog volcanic sulfur dioxide makes mildly acidic fog

• p091 Best volcano story, Manatash ridge 90 mi east of Mount Saint Helens, UW Doug Geisler log entry:
  • Hours lost: 6 Reason: Volcano (good excuse, huh?) Sky Condition: Black + smelly.
  • ... I've heard of the dark run but this is ridiculous
• p092 Chilean wildlife, tarantulas common

• p093 miller moths scourge of American West observatories

• p093 mothinator: lamp, fan, and industrial sized garbage bucket that fills in days

• p094 scorpions, Sarah Tuttle painful sting, legend evolved to helicopter evacuation

• p095 Chilean viscacha love watching sunsets, astronomer favorites

• p098 1988 November 15 Green Bank 300 ft radio telescope collapse

  • But It Was Fun 2007 author Greg Monk

  • replaced with 100m telescope August 2000 website

• p102 optical mirror accuracy must be 20 nanometers, Hubble Space telescope too flat by 2.5 micrometers

• p110 Ohio gunman shoots McDonald Observatory 107 inch telescope mirror (Cassegrain focus, big hole in center ) still functional, one percent less light