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Westmont Observatory

Community Gathers for Celestial Showcase

Westmont opens its observatory and powerful Keck Telescope for this month’s free public stargazing event Friday, July 18, beginning at 8:30 p.m. and lasting several hours. This month will be another chance to see Mizar, the middle star in the Big Dipper’s handle, and Alcor, the two stars that are actually six. “As we move through summer and into fall, these two will be harder and harder to see as they move below the horizon in the evenings, so come out and take a look if you haven't seen them yet,” says Jennifer Gee, assistant professor of physics and director of the Westmont Observatory.

Westmont hosts a free, public viewing on the third Friday of every month with the Santa Barbara Astronomical Unit, whose members bring their telescopes to share with the public.

Westmont's Powerful Keck Telescope — Westmont's powerful Keck Telescope

Additionally, the viewing will feature the Great Star Cluster in Hercules (M13), often cited as the grandest globular cluster north of the celestial equator. Located 25,000 light-years away, it hosts more than 100,000 stars crammed into a volume of space roughly 150 light-years in diameter. “It always amazes me,” Gee says. “It's an astounding canvas of stars. Assuming it's clear skies, it'll be dark enough by 9 p.m., and we'll be out there for a couple of hours.”

Free parking is available near the Westmont Observatory, which is between the baseball field and the track and field/soccer complex. To enter Westmont's campus, please use the Main Entrance off of La Paz Road. The lower entrance off of Cold Springs Road is closed to visitors after 7 p.m. Here is a map with directions to get to the observatory.

In case of inclement weather, please call the Telescope Viewing Hotline at (805) 565-6272 and check the observatory website to see if the viewing has been canceled.

KECK TELESCOPE

A Powerful Instrument for Astronomical Observations at Westmont

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The Keck Telescope, a computer-controlled 24-inch F/8 Cassegrain reflector with Ritchey-Chretien optics (the same configuration used on the Hubble Space Telescope), has served as a versatile instrument for Westmont faculty and students for over a decade and remains one of the most powerful telescopes on the California Central Coast. Not only has the device been used for a variety of research projects and coursework, but it has also been a source of awe and inspiration for the greater Santa Barbara community.

The Westmont Observatory also serves as one of the free, public observing sites for the Santa Barbara Astronomical Unit (SBAU) every third Friday of the month. In particular, the Keck Telescope has provided clearer and more dramatic demonstrations of the splendor of God’s creation to members of the broader Santa Barbara community, including young children and students in local schools.

“The observatory remains a signature component of the Westmont campus and a favorite among our current students and returning alumni,” says Professor Bob Haring-Kaye from the Department of Physics and Engineering. “We are excited to see how this facility will continue to be used to provide outstanding educational experiences, including meaningful research experiences, to our students and point to the artistic grandeur of the Creator.”

Three students walking in front of the Carroll Observatory.

The Keck Telescope

History

The original Westmont College Observatory was dedicated on June 1, 1957. (It has since been replaced by a new observatory in 2010.) The main dome featured a 16.5-inch reflector which was made and donated by George Carroll. The scope was equipped for spectroscopic and micrometric work, whose introduction originally made national news.

More recently, the original telescope caught the limelight as a group of amateur astronomers from the Santa Barbara Astronomy group observed the rotation of Mars with a CCD camera (Astronomy Magazine, Feb. 1989, p. 92.) These were some of the very first CCD images of Mars taken by amateurs.