Observing Starshine over Sedgwick Reserve

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The Byrne Obser­va­tory, part of a planned global tele­scope net­work, will be acces­si­ble to UC stu­dents and researchers. Image credit: Matthew C. Miller

A brand-new tele­scope at the NRS’s Sedg­wick Reserve is giv­ing astronomers front row seats to some of the most spec­tac­u­lar events in the night sky. Learn more about it cour­tesy of the cover story in UC Santa Bar­bara Today.

Look­ing Up: First Obser­va­tory at a UC Nat­ural Reserve

The sign on the door of the new Lau­rie Nelle Byrne Obser­va­tory at the Sedg­wick Reserve reads: “LCOGT.net  We Always Keep You in the Dark.”

The Byrne Obser­va­tory, the first at a UC Nat­ural Reserve, is part of the Las Cum­bres Obser­va­tory Global Tele­scope Net­work (LCOGT). When com­plete, the net­work will link 44 tele­scopes around the world, cre­at­ing an unin­ter­rupted, 24-hour-a-day view of the night sky. Data gath­ered by the robotic, solar-powered tele­scopes are acces­si­ble via the Internet.

Wayne Ros­ing, chief engi­neer and founder of the LCOGT, says Sedg­wick was cho­sen as the site for the 32-inch tele­scope because of its clear, dark sky. The obser­va­tory will cre­ate a “gate­way to sci­ence” for K-12 classes and extra­or­di­nary research oppor­tu­ni­ties for Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia stu­dents and astrophysicists.

“We antic­i­pate that the net­work will be used pri­mar­ily by stu­dents, and once it is fully com­mis­sioned robot­i­cally, time will be avail­able for sched­ul­ing by mem­bers of the UC sys­tem,” notes Ros­ing, a pio­neer in com­puter engi­neer­ing and senior fel­low in both astro­physics and engi­neer­ing at UC Santa Bar­bara. He also is a senior fel­low at UC Davis.

The LCOGT is par­tic­u­larly inter­ested in astro­nom­i­cal events that appear sud­denly and with­out warn­ing, such as super­novae and gamma-ray bursts and objects that need to be observed for long peri­ods of dark­ness, includ­ing plan­ets out­side of the solar sys­tem and binary star systems.

The Byrne Obser­va­tory is named in mem­ory of Lau­rie Nelle Byrne, who served as a docent at the reserve, and in honor of the Byrne fam­ily. Over the years, gifts from the family’s foun­da­tion have greatly enhanced the reserve, includ­ing sup­port for the Tip­ton Meet­ing House, the future head­quar­ters for Sedg­wick and the site for remote tele­scope presentations.

“With a remote tele­scope oper­a­tion you can fol­low a tran­sient object that appears bright and then dis­ap­pears,” explains UCSB astro­physi­cist Lars Bild­sten, a per­ma­nent mem­ber of the Kavli Insti­tute for The­o­ret­i­cal Physics. “As this net­work is con­structed, it will allow users around the world to cap­ture these events.”

— Eileen Conrad