Wednesday, October 30, 2019 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
19
Commentary...
Astronomy students delve into solar system research
By Delsie McCrystal
Correspondent
Sisters High School
Astronomy Club has been par-
ticipating in a research proj-
ect called RECON (Research
and Education Collaborative
Occultation Network) since
2015.
RECON is a project
funded by the National
Science Foundation that stud-
ies objects orbiting the sun
beyond Neptune in the outer
edge of the solar system.
These objects are called trans-
Neptunian objects (TNOs)
and are located in the Kuiper
Belt, a region beyond Neptune
holding millions of icy and
rocky objects. The TNOs
are frozen bodies believed to
have formed at the same time
as the rest of the solar system.
RECON seeks to learn
more about the properties of
these objects, giving informa-
tion that could tell us much
more about the formation
and early history of the solar
system. To gain information
about these objects, 64 com-
munities all along the West
Coast have been given tele-
scopes and cameras to record
events called occultations
in order to measure the size
and shape of specific aster-
oids9 shadows. An occultation
occurs when an object passes
in front of a star, making it
black out for a moment then
reappear. The amount of time
the star disappears and how
many communities see that
blackout helps determine
properties 4 such as size 4
of the object being studied.
Scientists Marc Buie and
John Keller are the found-
ers of the RECON project.
John Keller is an astronomy
educator at the University of
Colorado, Boulder, and Marc
Buie works at the Southwest
Research Institute and has
worked on the NASA New
Horizons mission studying
Pluto, Kuiper Belt objects,
and other TNOs. They started
the project in 2012, with
14 communities in Nevada
recording events. In 2014
they expanded with com-
munities spreading from the
borders of Mexico to Canada,
and in 2018, collaborators in
Canada added six more loca-
tions reaching into British
Columbia.
Sisters was chosen as one
of these communities.
Assisted by the telescope
donation by a community
donor and the expertise of
local astronomers, the Sisters
High School Astronomy
Club has been collecting
data for almost five years,
participating in about nine
events each year. The group
has recorded and collected
data for about 36 occultations.
Of these 36 events, at least
two have contributed publish-
able data for the project. Last
year on October 20, 2018, the
team recorded data showing
no detection of an occultation
which actually helped deter-
mine the boundary point of
the object, showing the lim-
its of its size. Up until this
year, our Sisters High School
Astronomy Club had never
seen or recorded an actual
occultation.
This fall our club had an
incredible opportunity to take
our telescope and camera, as
well as the equipment from
the Redmond and Bend teams
on the road to try and capture
an occultation of the Jupiter
Trojan asteroid Leucus, which
they had a very high probabil-
ity of viewing.
On October 1, after a
full school day, the students
were greeted by Teri Ast who
drove them on a bus for four
hours to a remote area east
of Burns. The group was also
accompanied by local Sisters
Astronomy Club member
Rod Moorehead and teacher
Rima Givot.
Upon arriving at the speci-
fied point, the students split
PHOTO PROVIDED
The mobile RECON team after a successful occultation mission.
into three groups, each taking
a different telescope to a set
location spaced a couple miles
apart from each other. The
teacher in charge of the club,
Rima Givot, led the furthest
south group of ninth-grade
students Zoey Lorusso, Olivia
Newton, and Matthew Riehle.
Co-president and senior
leader Delsie McCrystal led
her team of Holly Werts and
Catalina Chapman with the
support of Teri Ast at the mid-
dle location, and co-president
and senior leader Ramsey
Schar led her team of stu-
dents Christopher Lundgren
and Corbin Fredland with the
support of Rod Moorehead to
the furthest north point. The
leaders of each group worked
on a tight schedule to teach
their group how to use the
equipment as the team set up
the telescopes and aligned on
the prearranged star that was
expected to be shadowed by
the speeding asteroid.
All the groups managed to
align on the correct star field
in a short amount of time.
Even though they were suc-
cessful in aligning, there were
some issues after that. One
group started recording on the
correct star field but the video
cut out right before the occul-
tation happened, so they were
unable to record the entirety
of the event. Another group
had difficulty focusing the
telescope so the stars looked
like <donuts.=
In spite of an unfocused
telescope, the data they col-
lected was still useful and
helped constrain the region of
See ASTRONOMY on page 29
Direct from Istanbul to Sisters, Oregon
WHOLESALE TO THE PUBLIC
500+ one-of-a-kind
Handwoven Rugs • Pillows
Kilim • Sumak
New • Modern • Antiques
2'x3' to 10'x14'
Curator: Mehmet Ulman Sahin
After 22 years retail/wholesale in PDX
Delicious refreshments and real Turkish coffee
Friday-Monday,
November 1-4,
10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
at
Th e BELFRY
302 E. Main Ave., Sisters, Oregon
541-815-9122
TURKISH RUG BAZAAR — For information call Mehmet at 971-266-9247