Rick Kang leads the UO Pine Mountain Observatory’s outreach program.

The observatory, a research arm of the UO Department of Physics, has a way of leaving its visitors in awe. Functioning primarily as an educational facility for the public, it gives viewers a glimpse of the universe through the lens of three big professional, domed telescopes.

“The great thing is, they can be used by anyone who wants to do research — amateur astronomers, students, teachers, as well as professional astrophysicists,” said Pine Mountain Outreach Coordinator Rick Kang.

The observatory is one of a few in the world whose facilities are open to the public at night, and each summer approximately 3,000 people take advantage of the rare opportunity and make the journey to Central Oregon, thirty miles southeast of Bend. Science classes, astronomy and church clubs, and other private groups take these unique “sky tours” together.

To facilitate more comfortable and effective sky tours, the observatory plans to build a new science educational center with a combined auditorium/classroom facility and an outdoor amphitheater.

As the only professional observatory in Oregon, Pine Mountain is currently home to several NASA projects, which involve optical imaging of targets detected by NASA’s satellites. Though a relatively small astronomical research center, Pine Mountain is known for its ongoing research since 1970, when a UO physicist put Pine Mountain on the map by proving the existence of collapsed white dwarf stars.

Pine Mountain scientists use powerful telescopes and cameras to detect unknown objects in the galaxy. A digital camera is the heart of their data collection process. When fed by light from the large telescopes, it allows the scientists to detect objects millions and billions of light years away, picking up light that has spread out over huge distances. Using these high-tech instruments, they gather, record and eventually interpret what they’re seeing.

“That’s what astronomy is, figuring out what’s in the universe, because you’ve never seen it before,” said Greg Bothun, director of the observatory and professor of physics.

Kang demonstrates how a telescope works to schoolchildren in Bend.

Pine Mountain also allows students of all age levels to collect their own scientific data through an extensive outreach program that visits about 6,000 students in 300 classrooms each school year.

“We’re a proven program,” Kang said. “We’ve been in operation for fifteen years now, and we offer many currently recommended practices of teaching: hands-on, inquiry-based science, technology, engineering and math.”

Judy Francis, supervisor for the middle-secondary teacher program at the UO and retired 4J teacher, brought Kang and his outreach program to her UO and middle school classrooms. Her middle school students communicated with astronomers at Pine Mountain by computer to test their theories and map stars. It was a unique experience, Francis said. “It triggered an enthusiasm for astronomy that I was able to share with my students.”

In addition, K–12 science teachers are invited to special on-site trainings that give teachers an authentic experience by allowing them to gather their own data. “In this way, teaching science is an inquiry-based activity,” said Dr. Bothun, “rather than a fact-memorization activity.”

— KN