Showing posts with label observatory. Show all posts
Showing posts with label observatory. Show all posts

May 15 - Ancient Volcano / Futuristic Observatory!

Posted on May 15, 2019



On this date in 2017, James Turrell opened the monumental art project he's been working on for more than 40 years to guests making big donations.

 An art project called Roden Crater.

Roden Crater was a cinder cone - the remains of an ancient, extinct volcano - located in the Painted Desert of Arizona.

 And it wasn't for sale.

 This was back in the early 1970s. Artist James Turrell wouldn't take "no" for an answer; after working on the purchase for three years, he was able to buy Roden Crater. And then he was able to start building a naked-eye observatory for viewing the sun and the moon, winter and summer solstice, and other sky sights.

 What's the connection between a cinder cone and an observatory?

 Turrell is utilizing the remote location as a way of gaining darker night skies than most of us are used to.

 He's using the desert location as a way of gaining more sunny days and clear night skies than many other locations.

 And Turrell is utilizing the inner cone of the crater as a way of focusing our sight of the wide Western skies into a smaller viewpoint, a more narrow aperture.

The observatory is not something that intrudes much into the desert landscape - it's what is called "minimally invasive" - and the tunnels and viewing spots inside the crater are specially engineered to create a truly different way of experiencing and seeing light.

Now, when I first discovered that such a cool naked-eye observatory was being built - and so near me! - I assumed that there were one or two viewing spots within the crater. But there are TWENTY-ONE! And it may be that Turrell is planning an eventual 23 different viewing spots, plus six different tunnels connecting them! You can browse some of these spots, right now, before the observatory opens to the general public some time in the next five years, on this website.




The lucky folks who already got to experience the Roden Crater had to pay quite a bit for their luck - they made $5,000 donations to Turrell's non-profit organization to fund further work. Some people kicked in another $1,500 for a hotel room, onsite dinner, and breakfast the following morning!

 Check out this video and this other video on Turrell's Roden Crater project, and this video that shows one of Turrell's other works (also seen in the still photo below).


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August 8 – Cornerstone of Uraniborg Is Laid

Published on August 8, 2013
Astronomy is mostly an “observational science.”

 Much of astronomy involves observing (seeing) the Sun and moon, stars and planets, and all the other astronomical bodies. Astronomers observe these things at all the different wavelengths—radio waves to visible light to X-rays and beyond. They do experiments that confirm or reject hypotheses—but many of these experiments have to do with making more observations, often at special times such as during eclipses or transits. Astronomers cannot make experiments by, say, moving stars and galaxies around or injecting them with various chemicals to see what happens!

 Way back in the 1500s, astronomy was all about observing celestial bodies without telescopes (let alone spectroscopes and radio telescopes). Telescopes had not yet been invented, so astronomers were stuck with naked-eye observations, just like all the non-astronomers.

 What astronomers did better than everybody else was to make really careful observations, measuring just where the specks of light in the night sky were. They began to create instruments to help them keep records of the changing positions of the stars and other celestial bodies, night after night. But Tycho Brahe was frustrated by the instruments others made; they weren't capable of making the kind of exact measurements he needed to make. So Tycho invented improved instruments. He created sighting tubes, sextants, quadrants, and armillary spheres, along with a very accurate aiming device.
Furthermore, Tycho directed the construction of the first recorded building designed specifically for astronomical observation. On this date in 1576, the cornerstone of Tycho's new observatory, called Uraniborg, was laid. The building was located on the island of Hven and was carefully oriented for the best view of the sky. It featured towers and windows and balconies designed to serve as platforms for Tycho's instruments.

Here's what Uraniborg included:
Here we can see the layout
of the grounds around
Uraniborg.
First floor:
  • Four rooms: one for Tycho and his family;
  • the other three for visiting astronomers
  • Northern tower: kitchens
  • Southern tower: library
Second floor:
  • One large room, for visiting royalty; two smaller rooms
  • Towers: astronomical instruments
Third floor:
  • Loft divided into 8 small rooms for students
  • Roofs of towers: platforms for observation
  • “Widow's walk”: for observation
 Basement:
  • Alchemical laboratory and storage for food, salt, and fuel


After all of the planning, time, and expense that went to building Uraniborg, it soon became clear that there was too much wind high up on the towers to use the instruments. So Tycho planned another observatory, next door; this one he called Stjerneborg. This building had underground chambers where the instruments were placed, well out of the reach of the wind. Shutters could be opened to allow starlight to enter those chambers and reach the instruments.



Also on this date:
Sneak Some Zucchini onto Your Neighbor's Porch Night 















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Here are my Pinterest pages on August holidays, historical anniversaries in August, and August birthdays.




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