A program at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona allows total amateurs to spend a night at the telescope, with a professional astronomer as a guide, and peruse objects of his or her choosing. The lead guide, Adam Block, and other staff help visitors create professional images of their favorite targets.
The 5-year-old program has built up a wide-ranging photo album loaded with space images you would not suspect were produced, in part, by people who were taking their first serious look at the night sky.
"Most people who participate in these programs are just enthusiasts," Block says. "Many have never looked through a telescope."
One of the photos, of a globular cluster of stars known as M3, was produced on Scott Hemphill's watch. Scott said he'd like to be an astrophysicist or a rocket engineer someday. Now, he's mostly busy being a kid. Barely a teenager, the Oklahoman journeyed to the Arizona mountaintop with his father, John. No more than two visitors are allowed in each overnight session.
Scott knew very little about astrophotography going in. Now he knows how the best modern space images are made, using devices called charged coupled devices. These CCD cameras record images electronically and are more sensitive than film.
Scott has also learned that a typical astrophotograph is often the sum of many parts, a result more gratifying than an individual peek through the eyepiece.
"What you do is put around 12 exposures together," he says. "And once that is done it looks really cool."
Be the astronomer
The program treats guests as visiting astronomers. They get a dorm room, eat meals at the observatory, and make all the decisions about what they will or won't see and do. Block said some guests mostly want to know how astronomers work or wish to improve their observing skills. Others just want to look up.
For many, however, a poster-quality photo is the goal. And while the program's primary goal is not science, some of the imagery competes with the best out there. Block said there are a lot of objects in the night sky that are not widely photographed by professionals and which are out of the reach of most amateur telescopes.
"We can take high-resolution color images of objects for which there exists no counterpart in the literature," he said.
More than 750 people have participated in the overnight observing program. For a few, it has become somewhat of an addiction.
Michael Stegina's first trip to Kitt Peak was a Christmas present from his children in 1996. He lives nearby and has been back seven times since. His favorite image is one he helped generate of the Bubble Nebula, in which fast-moving gas expelled from a star creates a shell, which in turn glows from the light of the star.
"Each time I learn something new in image processing and telescope guiding," Stegina said. Since his first visit to Kitt Peak, Stegina installed a 12-inch telescope in his backyard and switched from photographing with film to using a CCD camera.
For Stegina, the instruction is part of the lure of the program. For Adam Block, sharing his knowledge of the sky with beginners is a great way to collaborate in producing what he calls "some of the very best high-resolution color images in the world." Mostly, though, it's about outreach.
"What better way to show people what being an astronomer is like -- let them be astronomers themselves for an entire night."
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