Collecting Light: An Exploration of Arizona Astronomy
Astronomy tourists are flocking to public viewing programs at many observatories. Meanwhile, just a few feet away, the professionals make significant discoveries.
Collecting Light explores the democratization of astronomy and the next wave of important work using the world’s largest telescopes.
The series aired in 2013 on Tucson NPR Member station KUAZ.
Executive Producer/Reporter: Mark Duggan
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Adam Block runs the public viewing programs at Mt. Lemmon Observatory above Tucson. (Photo: Mark Duggan)
The Steward Observatory Mirror Lab at the University of Arizona makes mirrors for some of the largest telescopes in the world. Here, one of the mirror segments for the Giant Magellan Telescope is readied for polishing, a process that takes several years. (Photo: Mark Duggan)
Geronimo Cruz leads attendees on an evening viewing program at Kitt Peak National Observatory west of Tucson. (Photo: Mark Duggan)
Cars at Kitt Peak National Observatory are assigned headlight blinders to reduce light pollution around the sensitive telescopes. (Photo: Mark Duggan)
The HAT, or Hungarian Automated Telescope, on Mt. Hopkins south of Tucson. The HAT system scans the night sky by remote control. (Photo: Mark Duggan)
Howard Bond at work at the 2.1-meter telescope on Kitt Peak. (Photo: Mark Duggan)
Kitt Peak is home to the largest concentration of optical and radio telescopes in North America. (Photo: Mark Duggan)
Attendees at Kitt Peak's nightly viewing program head to a viewing area. (Photo: Mark Duggan)
The dual 8.4-meter (27-foot) diameter mirrors of the Large Binocular Telescope in eastern Arizona. (Photo: Mark Duggan)
Many modern telescopes are housed in cube-like structures instead of domes. The Large Binocular Telescope sits in an 8-story high enclosure that can rotate 180-degrees. (Photo: Mark Duggan)
A single mirror of the Large Binocular Telescope. It is 27-feet in diameter. The catwalk around the perimeter of the mirror gives it some scale. The mirror assembly can move from horizontal to vertical in about one minute. (Photo: Mark Duggan)
A visitor at the night sky viewing program on Mt. Lemmon peers through the eyepiece of the Schulman Telescope. (Photo: Mark Duggan)
The McMath Pierce Solar Telescope is the largest solar instrument in the world. It's one of more than 50 different observation facilities on Kitt Peak. (Photo: Mark Duggan.)
The control room at the MMT Observatory on Mt. Hopkins. (Photo: Mark Duggan)
The mirror assembly for the MMT Observatory. (Photo: Mark Duggan)
The MMT telescope on Mt. Hopkins south of Tucson. The peak is home to multiple telescopes, all within 40 minutes of the metropolitan area. (Photo by Mark Duggan)
Mount Graham is an isolated sky island in southeast Arizona and home to several observatories, including the Large Binocular Telescope, the Submillimeter Telescope, and the VATT, which is operated by the Vatican. Yes, the Vatican. (Photo: Mark Duggan)
The Navy Precision Optical Interferometer is located at Lowell Observatory's "Dark Sky Site" southeast of Flagstaff. The NPOI uses an array of six mirrors spaced tens to hundreds of meters apart to precisely direct up to six beams of light from a star to a point. (Photo: Mark Duggan)
In the combining room at the Navy Precision Optical Interferometer, or NPOI. The NPOI can optically separate distant pairs of stars so close together that they appear as a single star in even the largest conventional telescopes. (Photo: Mark Duggan)
The Navy Precision Optical Interferometer southeast of Flagstaff uses an array of six mirrors spaced tens to hundreds of meters apart. The instrument is so sensitive that it can successfully pick out distant pairs of stars that appear as a single star to even the largest conventional telescopes. It's another example of innovative new astronomy to allow us to see more of our known - and unknown - universe. (Photo: Mark Duggan)
The dome of the Pluto Discovery Telescope at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff. (Photo: Mark Duggan)
The 33-centimeter (13-inch) Pluto Discovery Telescope, used by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930 to discover the dwarf planet Pluto. (Photo: Mark Duggan)
One of seven 8.4-meter segments of mirror destined for the Giant Magellan Telescope in Chile. The Steward Observatory Mirror Lab makes the mirrors, which take several years to cast, grind, and polish. (Photo: Mark Duggan)
Night sky viewing programs are opening doors to let the public in on what the scientists see. (Photo: Mark Duggan)
Raw chunks of glass like this one will be loaded into a mold and slowly cast into a telescope mirror. Casting alone takes months. (Photo: Mark Duggan)
The Schulman Telescope at the Mt. Lemmon Sky Center (Photo: Mark Duggan)
The 4-meter (158-inch) Mayall Telescope on Kitt Peak. The 18-story dome can be seen from more than 50 miles away. The telescope's mirror weighs 15 tons and is polished to one-millionth of an inch. The Mayall is home to the BigBOSS sky imaging project. (Photo: Mark Duggan)
The Tucson skyline from the Mt. Lemmon Highway. Kitt Peak National Observatory is on a mountaintop in the background, less than 40 miles from the city. Light pollution is increasingly affecting observations at telescopes on both Kitt Peak and Mt. Lemmon. (Photo: Mark Duggan)
A freshly-cast mirror segment for the Giant Magellan Telescope awaits polishing, which will take several years. (Photo: Mark Duggan)
Mt. Lemmon Sky Center visitors look westward. A simple pair of binoculars can be a handy tool for observing night sky objects. (Photo: Mark Duggan)