{"id":932,"date":"2023-09-28T23:15:46","date_gmt":"2023-09-29T03:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/jpark3\/?p=932"},"modified":"2023-10-10T07:02:19","modified_gmt":"2023-10-10T11:02:19","slug":"post-020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/jpark3\/post-020\/","title":{"rendered":"BU\u2019s Perkins Telescope Observatory Reopens with a Brand-new Dome"},"content":{"rendered":"

Did you know Boston University has a telescope facility in Arizona?<\/p>\n

BU has owned and operated the\u00a0<\/span>Perkins Telescope Observatory<\/a>, a dark-sky observatory site just outside of Flagstaff, since the late 1990s. (In 2019, BU became the sole owner and operator after buying out its partner, Lowell Observatory.) The facility is home to the 1.83-meter diameter Perkins Telescope, a powerful telescope used in BU astronomy courses as well as research projects like the study of jets in supermassive black holes, magnetic fields in the Milky Way, and\u00a0<\/span>white dwarf stars<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now the Perkins Telescope has some brand-new digs. The observatory closed in April of this year for renovations on its retractable dome, a steel structure built in the 1960s. In September, the facility officially reopened with a fresh dome \u201cskin,\u201d as well as newly aluminized internal telescope mirrors, amounting to $400,000-plus of upgrades.<\/p>\n

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Buying out Lowell Observatory meant taking sole responsibility for deferred maintenance the Perkins telescope desperately needed, says\u00a0<\/span>Dan Clemens<\/a>, a longtime College of Arts & Sciences professor of astronomy, who helped oversee the project. The dome, which is constructed of circular steel \u201cribs\u201d covered by heavy steel panels, \u201chad rusted to the point where it was no longer safe to just repaint, which was the panels\u2019 standard fix,\u201d Clemens explains.<\/p>\n

Of course, replacing giant steel panels is no small feat.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not like you can go on Craigslist and find a telescope dome\u2013re-skinning company,\u201d Clemens jokes. Ultimately, the project went to\u00a0<\/span>Behmer Roofing & Sheet Metal<\/a>, an Arizona-based contractor that was up for the challenge. (Re-aluminizing was done at the\u00a0<\/span>Lowell Discovery Channel Telescope\u2019s aluminizing chamber<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>in Happy Jack, Ariz.)<\/p>\n

As for the dome\u2019s old steel panels? They were upcycled by a Lowell Observatory employee to use as material for battle-robot competitions, Clemens reports.<\/p>\n

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Other renovation difficulties included battling Arizona\u2019s summer monsoon season (the hottest and driest on record), as well as the worries that come with working around very delicate (and expensive) equipment, says E. J. Winslow, Campus Planning & Operations senior project manager for special construction projects.<\/p>\n

In an observatory environment, \u201ceven dropping a screw can cause havoc,\u201d says Winslow, who oversaw the observatory renovation. \u201cI don\u2019t want to say that the contractors were read the Riot Act, but they were very aware of the value of everything in that room and very on top of things.\u201d<\/p>\n

The biggest downside, however? Missing out on stargazing while the telescope was offline. \u201cJune was just spectacular out there,\u201d Clemens says. \u201cIt was soul-killing to watch the clear skies and know our telescope was shut down.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the video below, watch as the observatory sheds its decades-old skin and gets some much-needed TLC. And above, check out some recent pictures taken through the newly refurbished Perkins Telescope and its two optical instruments,\u00a0<\/span>PRISM and Mimir<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Via: https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/articles\/2023\/bu-perkins-telescope-observatory-reopens\/<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Did you know Boston University has a telescope facility in Arizona? BU has owned and operated the\u00a0Perkins Telescope Observatory, a dark-sky observatory site just outside of Flagstaff, since the late 1990s. (In 2019, BU became the sole owner and operator after buying out its partner, Lowell Observatory.) The facility is home to the 1.83-meter diameter … Continue reading “BU\u2019s Perkins Telescope Observatory Reopens with a Brand-new Dome”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9115,"featured_media":933,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/jpark3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/jpark3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/jpark3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/jpark3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9115"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/jpark3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=932"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/jpark3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":937,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/jpark3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932\/revisions\/937"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/jpark3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/jpark3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/jpark3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/jpark3\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}