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University Daily Kansan Thursday, April 18, 1963
Lindley Telescopes Spy on Outer Space
SUN IN FOCUS—Maxwell Sandford, Kansas City, Mo., freshman, focuses onto paper the image of the sun as seen through the six-inch department of astronomy telescope located on the roof of Lindley Hall.
By Dolores Orman
Perched atop Lindley Hall are two dome-shaped buildings. The smaller one houses the astronomy department's eight foot long, six-inch diameter refracting telescope. The larger building houses the 12-foot long, 27-inch diameter telescope used for photographing objects in the sky such as stars.
It is the former, the telescope which is designed primarily for observation and not photographing, that has proved to be of special interest to the layman.
VARIOUS GROUPS occasionally visit the observation telescope. The most recent groups were two Brownie troops from Lawrence.
N. W. Storer, associate professor of astronomy, said more groups ask to be shown through the observatory than there is time to take them. He said another factor is that so many times the atmospheric conditions are not conducive to good observations.
The telescope has a magnification power of from 20 to 400 times. The very high power magnification is seldom used, Prof. Storer said.
"IN ORDER TO GET a good view you not only need a clear sky but a steady sky," Prof. Sterer explained. The frequent changes in temperature — such as the hot days to cool nights — often cause heat wave-like ripples to form in the atmosphere. The more magnification used the more magnified the ripples become," he said.
The best atmospheric conditions usually occur in October, Prof. Storer said. In spring, he said, one is uncertain of the clouds and in
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"You use low magnification when you want the whole object in the field of view," he explained. "At a magnification of 50 one can see all of the moon. By increasing the magnification one can see only a part of it."
PROF. STORER also explained the things that appear blurred at low power also appear blurred at high power — magnification serving only to magnify the blur and not focus it.
When asked how far away the observation telescope could cover successfully, Prof. Storer answered "A star is simply a point of light anyhow, so it makes no difference how
far away it is, it will still appear as a point of light."
"SOME OF THE fainter stars seem brighter because they are closer, whereas the intrinsically brighter stars seem faint because they are so far away," he said.
The things Prof. Storer has observed include the moons around the planet Jupiter, the clouds of gases called nebula, and partial eclipses of the sun. Prof. Storer said observing the partial eclipses of the sun is more interesting when one has been able to calculate when the eclipse will occur beforehand.
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The planets are only observable at certain periods of time, Prof. Storer explained. As an example Mars is best observable at intervals of 26 months, he said.
THE REASON the planets change their position from one season to the next is that they are traveling around the sun, Prof. Storer explained. He noted that Jupiter takes 12 years to go around the sun and its position as a result is constantly changing from one month to the other.
The 12-foot photographing telescope is used among other things, for taking photographs of the spectrum of the stars. These photographs (which appear as bands of rainbow colors), said Prof. Storer, enable the observer to determine the chemical makeup and the speed of the star.
THE TELESCOPE works just like
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a camera, said Prof. Storer, only the distance from the lens to the film is 12 feet instead of a few inches. The film is placed at the eyepiece end of the telescope.
He said the observation telescope is not often used to view the artificial satellites because they move too fast. Two of his students observed one of the fainter satellites a few days ago, he said. The satellite was within range of view for
only three seconds.
Some students may wonder if it is possible to observe other things besides celestial bodies, such as the occupants in buildings. From the roof of Lindley possibly yes, but not with the telescope.
Prof. Storer said the edge of the dome is too high to observe anything more than the top of the radio tower in the vicinity of 15th and Iowa Streets.
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