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Westmont Observatory

Community Gathers for Celestial Showcase

This month’s stargazing event will feature several star clusters, including M18, the Black Swan Cluster in Sagittarius, on Friday, Aug. 15, beginning about 8:30 p.m. and lasting several hours at the Westmont Observatory, home of the powerful Keck Telescope. The college hosts a free, public viewing of the stars on the third Friday of every month at sunset and lasting several hours.

Westmont's Powerful Keck Telescope — The powerful Keck Telescope

“Hopefully, we'll have clear skies and be able to see the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules,” says Jennifer Gee, assistant professor of physics and director of the observatory. “I'm hoping we'll see the Dumbbell Nebula, which is thought to be the stellar remnant of a star similar in size to our sun.”

The stargazing event is held in conjunction with members of the Santa Barbara Astronomical Unit, who bring their telescopes and celestial knowledge to share with the public.

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. In case of overcast 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.