WELCOME TO THE

Westmont Observatory

Telescope Aims for Rare Blood Worm Moon

The Westmont Observatory opens to the public for a rare lunar eclipse in the early morning hours of Tuesday, March 3. This will be the last total eclipse that will be visible in Santa Barbara for at least the next three years. The observatory will open at 3 a.m. and will remain available until about 5 a.m. when the moon dips below the horizon. March's full moon, named a worm moon, will slowly turn into a blood moon, as the Earth's shadow completely covers the moon, filtering sunlight through our atmosphere and turning the lunar surface deep red or coppery brown.

The Blood Moon — The blood moon as photographed by Westmont's Keck Telescope

The eclipse event begins at 12:44 a.m. with totality beginning at 3:04 a.m. Totality will last for 58 minutes, and the eclipse event ends at 6:23 a.m.

“My recommendation would be to come out between 3:30-4 a.m. to see totality and then watch the moon pass out of the Earth's shadow,” says Jennifer Gee, assistant professor of physics and director of the Westmont Observatory. “If you happen to find yourself wide awake early in the morning, please come out and join me in marveling at the way God created our solar system.”

The observatory, which houses the powerful Keck Telescope, a 24-inch F/8 Cassegrain reflecting instrument with Ritchey-Chretien optics, reopens to the public Friday, March, 20, beginning at sunset and lasting several hours.

KECK TELESCOPE

A Powerful Instrument for Astronomical Observations at Westmont

Physics Department Home

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.