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

Collecting Light Video Preview

Stories

The popular science of public observatories

Astronomy is becoming a huge hobby for everyday people. Public viewing programs at observatories are booked months in advance. People want to see what the professional stargazers are seeing. It’s part of the ongoing democratization of astronomy.

A century of stargazing

How did Arizona get to be America’s epicenter of astronomy? Part of it was pure luck. But Arizona’s notoriously clear and dark skies also played a role.

The age of the giant telescope

Every few years, a new telescope is proclaimed to be the world‘s largest. The race is on to build instruments that see farther into the heavens and explain more of the unknown universe.

Dark skies, bright future

Arizona became an astronomy hub a century ago because of its clear, dark skies. Settlements were small, remote mountaintops plentiful, and clouds rare. Even today, the state gets up to nine months a year of near-perfect conditions for night sky observations.

Tomorrow, we see farther

Astronomers admit that our map of the known universe has many blank spots. There are vast areas of space that are still a mystery. That’s about to change.

Photos

Viewing program on Mount Lemmon

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)

Geronimo Cruz leading a viewing program

Geronimo Cruz leads attendees on an evening viewing program at Kitt Peak National Observatory west of Tucson. (Photo: Mark Duggan)

Kitt Peak Public Viewing Program

Attendees at Kitt Peak’s nightly viewing program head to a viewing area. (Photo: Mark Duggan)

Looking through a real telescope

A visitor at the night sky viewing program on Mt. Lemmon peers through the eyepiece of the Schulman Telescope. (Photo: Mark Duggan)

Schulman Telescope

The Schulman Telescope at the Mt. Lemmon Sky Center (Photo: Mark Duggan)

Adam Block and planisphere

Adam Block runs the public viewing programs at Mt. Lemmon Observatory above Tucson. (Photo: Mark Duggan)

Kitt Peak astronomer Howard Bond

Howard Bond at work at the 2.1-meter telescope on Kitt Peak. (Photo: Mark Duggan)

Kitt Peak National Observatory

Kitt Peak is home to the largest concentration of optical and radio telescopes in North America. (Photo: Mark Duggan)

McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope

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.)

Doorway to public telescope at Flandrau Science Center and Planetarium

Public viewing programs such as the one at the University of Arizona’s Flandrau Science Center have become increasingly popular. Many observatories book them months in advance. (Photo: Mark Duggan)

Pluto Discovery Telescope at Lowell Observatory

The dome of the Pluto Discovery Telescope at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff. (Photo: Mark Duggan)

Pluto Discovery Telescope

The 33-centimeter (13-inch) Pluto Discovery Telescope, used by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930 to discover the dwarf planet Pluto. (Photo: Mark Duggan)

Hungarian Automated Telescope

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)

Raw glass chunk before mirror casting

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)

Giant Magellan Telescope mirror after casting

Casting a mirror at the Mirror Lab

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)

Unpolished telescope mirror

A freshly-cast mirror segment for the Giant Magellan Telescope awaits polishing, which will take several years. (Photo: Mark Duggan)

Giant Magellan Telescope mirror at Mirror Lab

Polished telescope mirror

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)

MMT on Mount Hopkins

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)

MMT control room

The control room at the MMT Observatory on Mt. Hopkins. (Photo: Mark Duggan)

MMT mirror

The mirror assembly for the MMT Observatory. (Photo: Mark Duggan)

Large Binocular Telescope

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)

Mount Graham Observatory

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)

Large Binocular Telescope mirrors

The dual 8.4-meter (27-foot) diameter mirrors of the Large Binocular Telescope in eastern Arizona. (Photo: Mark Duggan)

LBT mirror assembly

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)

Tucson Skyline

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)

Headlight blinders

Cars at Kitt Peak National Observatory are assigned headlight blinders to reduce light pollution around the sensitive telescopes. (Photo: Mark Duggan)

Navy Precision Optical Interferometer

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)

The Mayall Telescope on Kitt Peak

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)

Navy Precision Optical Interferometer combining room

NPOI combining room

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)

Navy Precision Optical Interferometer tubes

NPOI tubes

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)