v i e w spring/summer 2016 volume 16 - pari.edu · spring/summer 2016. pari calendar. june 10 ....

V I E WVolume 16 Number 2

Spring/Summer 2016

PARI CalendarJune 10 Evening at PARIJuly 8 Evening at PARIAugust 11 Perseid Meteor Shower Observing SessionAugust 12 Evening at PARISept. 9 Evening at PARISept. 16 Friends of PARI Annual Meeting

New website: a transformation

Sneak PeakComing soon to computer, tablet or smart phone near you! PARI’s new website is currently being beta-tested and will soon be made available to the public.

Keep an eye on www.pari.edu.

In this issue . . .Science in the Stars . . . . . .

3D Planets . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Biogen Grant . . . . . . . . . . . .

Observing Opportunities

Summer Programs . . . . . .

Research Update . . . . . . . .

PARI in Pictures . . . . . . . . .

Space Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Volunteering . . . . . . . . . . . .

Brad McCall . . . . . . . . . . . . .

In Memoriam . . . . . . . . . . . .

Chamber Award . . . . . . . . .

Astronomer’s Corner

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Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute, a public not-for-profit 501(c)(3) foundation

PARI continued its active support of the Western Regional Science Fair at Western Carolina University in Cullo-whee. This year’s theme was Science in the Stars, and PARI’s Bob Hayward and Christi Whitworth were invited to make the featured presentation to the 400+ attendees, a program on the electro-magnetic spectrum.

PARI also sponsored a booth, sharing information about Smiley and SCOPE Star Classification. Each year, PARI also supports an award in astronomy. The photo here shows Bob and Christi pre-senting the Elementary Division award to Dasgididi Denili Brody Hill from New Kituah Academy for his project on counting stars. Junior Division winners were Whitley Sumpter, Amanda Gibson and Madison Logan from Hayesville Middle School for their rocketry project.

Science in the Stars at the Western Regional Science Fair

A busy spring for PARI’s 3D PlanetsPARI’s 3D Planets program continues its series of week-long workshops for mid-dle-school girls at local science museums throughout North Carolina. So far this year the program has been hosted at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, Hands On! A Child’s Gallery in Hender-sonville, Horizons Unlimited in Salisbury and Port Discover in Elizabeth City.

Sponsored by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund and Red Hat, 3D Planets provides girls ages 9-13 the opportunity to learn about lunar and planetary altimeter data, 3D design and 3D printing. The girls then use their knowledge to design and pro-duce new tools for educators to use at the

Dasgididi Denili Brody Hill receives the Elementary Division award

local science museums for peo-ple with visual impairments. The workshops this spring involved a total of 60 girls and they produced 30 models of the Moon and Mars. Photos shown here are from the workshop at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham.

3D Planets (continued)

The night-sky observing sessions included as part of our monthly Evening at PARI programs have proven to be so popular that PARI has scheduled additional opportunities throughout the year. To date in 2016, we’ve hosted three well-attended sessions and three more are scheduled. The next event is planned for August 11, to coincide with the Perseid meteor shower. Check the website, www.pari.edu, for de-tails and other opportunities to gaze skyward with PARI astronomers.

PARI schedules public night-sky observing opportunities throughout

the year.PARI has been awarded a $2,500 grant to facilitate a field trip to PARI by students from Rosman Middle School. The grant is from the Biogen Foundation’s Ignite the Power of STEM program, ad-ministered by the North Carolina Community Foundation.

The grant will allow PARI to bring about 140 middle school students to the campus and engage in a full day of learning opportunities with our astronomers and educa-tors. The objective is to host the students in an active laboratory environment so they will better understand science careers, the need for STEM skills and the im-portance of cultivating their own future opportunities. Tentatively targeted for August, the field trip will allow students to learn from the researchers about their edu-cation, background interests and career paths.

PARI to host Rosman Middle School students

Students are involved throughout the year at PARI but the summer months are prime-time for intensive on-campus experiences, including:• Duke TIP (Talent Identification Pro-

gram) is returning to PARI for the 15th consecutive year. This year will again feature two sessions. In each session, 27 students from across the country will spend a full two weeks on campus ex-ploring astrophysics, stellar and galactic astronomy, astrobiology and astronom-ical instrumentation. The program in-cludes research studies using PARI radio and optical telescopes as well as some formal class sessions. Students engage in original research under the direction of PARI astronomers and Duke TIP staff, then write and present a summary of their work.

• Undergraduate Interns. PARI will also host five undergraduate interns. The J. Donald Cline Scholar will work on in-strumentation for the 2017 solar eclipse. The Jo Cline Intern will help redesign and plan the PARI Exhibit Gallery. The 12m radio telescope will receive upgrades from the Chip Parks Intern and the Jan-et Parks Intern will embark on an Earth Science project involving stream quality. An IT Intern will work direction with CIO Lamar Owens on upgrades for PARI’s IT infrastructure. All interns will live on the PARI campus and serve as mentors during the Duke TIP sessions.

• Southwestern Community College is planning to bring its middle school camp to PARI in June and is also planning a vis-it for its undergraduate astronomy stu-dents.

In addition to the student activities, PARI’s regular programs continue throughout the summer, including Evening at PARI, sched-uled public observing opportunities, and much more. Check the website Event Cal-endar for details.

Student programs highlight a busy summer at PARI

RESEARCH UPDATEM. Castelaz,

Lead Scientist

Ten Years of Research with the PARI West Optical Telescope

In early 2006 a clamshell dome and a DFM Engineering 0.4m (16-inch) optical telescope were installed on the Optical Ridge at PARI. The clamshell was care-fully mounted on the observato-ry building (Figure 1), and the pier for the telescope mount was poured (Figure 2). After the DFM staff installed the telescope mount and telescope tube and op-tics (Figure 3), the telescope was ready for viewing through the eyepiece (Figure 4). The next step was installation of a camera

In Fall 2006 the telescope was equipped with astronom-ical filters and a new research grade Apogee CCD cam-era. And, on December 9, 2006 both the telescope and camera were ready and first light images were taken. Figure 5 shows an image of the Dumbbell Nebula – the first light image. The characteristics of the telescope and camera are given in Box 1.

Since 2006 the West Optical Telescope (WOT), as it is known, continues to be used by astronomers, young scholars in the Duke TIP (Talent Identification Program) Summer Field Study in Astronomy, Physics, and Astrobi-

ology at PARI, undergraduates, and PARI sum-mer interns. We estimate that about 210 TIP students and scores of undergraduates and astronomers from a dozen colleges and uni-versities have done their research with this telescope, acquiring more than 50,000 images during the 10 years. Because hundreds of sky scientists have used the telescope, we can’t present every project done with the telescope. Instead, we have selected a representative sample of work that has been done with WOT.

The clamshell is carried to the rooftop of the observatory building.

Thad McCall inspects the mold for the pier before pouring.

The telescope fork mount is set in place.

Projects conducted by high school students in Duke TIP Program cover a broad range of topics from planetary science to quasars.

The projects are typically a team effort consisting of three stu-dents. Box 2 on the next page lists many of the titles of projects that used the West Optical Telescope.

Those projects that involved neb-ulae relied heavily on images for morphology studies, while those that involved stars were photo-metric data measuring the bright-nesses of individual stars.

PARI West Optical Telescope (continued)

The telescope peering out of the clamshell dome.

Figure 5. First light image – M27 the Dumbbell Nebula

Figure 6.

Figure 7. A light curve of an exoplanet transit of Tres 1B

Duke TIP Student Research Projects• The Search for Extra-Solar Planets• Supernovae• HII Regions and Supernova Remnants: A Comparative Study: The HII Regions

Aspect• HII Regions and Supernova Remnants: A Comparative Study: The Supernova

Remnant Aspect• Elemental Distribution of Reflection and Emission Nebulae• Stellar Astronomy and Radio Emissions• Comparing masses and Ages of Binary Systems and Observing U Scorpii, • The Effects of Supernova Remnants verses The Effects of Planetary Nebulae

on Star Formation, • Neptune: The Mystic Planet • Supernovae• Pulsations of Phoenix Variable Star XX Cygnus• Searching for Tres-1B• Spectroscopic Binary Stars• Determining the Rotation of Saturn and Its Rings• A Study of Particle Sizes and Distributions in NGC 7023• Brightness of Potential Stars that will Become Supernovae• Supernovae: Past and Present• Planets around Binary Stars• Observing Beta Lyrae: A Binary Star System• Dust Reddening in Spiral galaxies• Bizzare Blazars• Determining the Temperature of Clouds Near Sagittarius A*• Analysis of the Eclipsing Binary U Corona Borealis• Do Star in the Same Cluster Have Similar Chemical Compositions (Focusing

on M39, NGC6756, and IC 4665)?” • Emission, Reflection, and Dark Nebulae• Observing the Transit of Exoplanet WASP-14b• Studies of the ‘Green’ Stars (Beta Libra)• Observed Correlation in Binary Star Systems

As an example of an image taken for morphological purposes, Figure 6 shows a 10 second exposure of the Orion Nebula taken with a red filter. This particular image came from the study “Emission, Reflection, and Dark Nebulae” where the students were comparing the natures of different types of gas and dust clouds in the interstellar medium.

As an example of photometry, Figure 7 shows a light curve of an exoplanet transit – part of the project “Searching for Tres-1B.” The light curve shows the change in stellar brightness (y-axis) as a function of time (Julian Date x-axis). The dip that occurs is the result of a planet orbiting the star Tres 1 and slightly obscuring some light from that star.

Undergraduates in upper level astronomy courses have conducted observing sessions with their astronomy professor at PARI with the West Optical telescope. These sessions also include imaging and photometry. So, for example, images of the Moon were taken to study lunar features. Figure 8 is one such image. The field of view of WOT is about 30 arcminutes, so an image will contain nearly all of the full Moon. Figure 9 is an image of the spiral galaxy M33. Note the detail in the structure of the spiral arms. Students used images like these to study different types of galaxies like spiral, barred-spirals, and ellipticals.

Figure 8. A 1 second exposure of the Moon


Astronomers usually use the West Optical Telescope for photometry. Figure 10 shows light curves taken in Visual, Red, and Infrared filters of the eclipsing binary V523 Cassiopeia. This binary consists of two solar type stars orbiting each other in 5.5 hours! The light curves shown in Figure 10 are the result of 7 nights of observing, accumulating more than 1,200 images per filter. The light curves were used to compare the period of revolution with historical measurements. The comparison shows that there must be a third companion orbiting the pair about once every 100 years.

We continue to use the West Optical Telescope, and look forward to new discoveries and research projects. Figures 11 and 12 show the telescope when configured with a low resolution spectrometer – ready for the next observer.

Figure 9. The galaxy M33

Figure 10. The light curve of V523 Cas. The curves show one star orbiting the other in about 5.5 hours.

Figure 12. The West Optical Telescope Observatory


PARI in PicturesFriends of PARI Volunteer Alex Armstrong is a professional photographer who graciously provides stunning photos for PARI literature and public outreach. Here are a few of his recent works.

Space Day Draws a CrowdFrom the first public open house in our history (in the year 2000), the first Saturday in May has been a highlight on the PARI calendar, a special day when PARI welcomes visitors drawn to our annual Space Day festivities. This year was no exception--- a full day of fun-filled and educational family activities.

Volunteer at PARI

Since its inception, PARI has re-lied heavily on volunteers to ac-complish many of the tasks as-sociated with operating a large science education and research center.

Volunteers serve our mission in two ways. First, by involving vol-unteers we extend our outreach to the public beyond the realm of researchers and educational in-stitutions. Secondly, volunteers help get the work done.

Currently, PARI is seeking volun-teers to:

• Conduct tours—greet visitors and guide tours of the PARI campus.

• Facilitate special events- night sky observing, education pro-grams, Evening at PARI, and many more.

• Assist with astronomy re-search- work with the archive of rare, historic photographic plates in PARI’s APDA.

High school students are invited to participate in college prep ex-periences.

If you want to help, or simply learn more about what you can do, contact Sarah Chappell at [email protected] or call 828-862-5554.

Brad McCallPARI security officer receives certification

in Memoriam

Brad McCall, PARI security officer, has completed extensive training by the Security Guard Exchange in Charlotte and has been certified by the NC Private Protective Service Board.

Brad’s training included emergency response, communication, patrol procedures, health and safety hazards, deportment and defense tactics. At PARI, his responsibilities include site security, site safety procedures and surveillance, including the installation, maintenance and monitoring of PARI’s extensive network of security monitoring equipment.

Thad McCall

He knew every nut and bolt, what was behind every door and how everything worked.

Thad served as facilities director during his PARI years and there is quite likely not a piece of functioning infrastructure that does not carry on it one of Thad’s fingerprints.

A native of Transylvania County, Thad served in Vietnam with the U.S. Army, then returned home to settle in the Silversteen Community with Mary, his wife of 53 years. His son, Brad, carries on the family tradition at PARI, currently serving as site security officer.

Thad loved NASCAR, bluegrass music, his community, his family--- and PARI.

He will be long remembered.

The McCall family is shown at last fall’s Friends of PARI annual meeting, when Brad was presented the President’s Award. Thad was honored with the same award at the Friends of PARI meeting in 2007 and again in 2013. Shown here, left to right, are: Thad, Mary, Don and Brad.

Thad McCall’s life and the history of the PARI campus are so intertwined they are virtually inseparable. As a teenager, Thad helped clear the roadway to what was to become NASA’s Rosman Tracking Station in 1962. He then embarked on a remarkable 53-year career at the site: first with NASA, then the Department of Defense, then the U.S. Forest Service, and finally PARI.

Thad’s knowledge of the site was so impressive that PARI Founder Don Cline has often remarked that he would not have acquired the site if Thad did not come with it.

(Photo courtesy of The Transylvania Times.)

PARI wins “Nonprofit of the Year”At its annual gala, the Brevard/Transylvania Chamber of Commerce announced a new award: Nonprofit of the Year. PARI was honored as the first recipient.

In presenting the award, Brevard Mayor Jimmy Harris acknowledged PARI’s rich history and current ef-forts to involve the public in science, saying “this once top-secret location is now more accessible than ever.”

CIO Lamar Owen, a lifelong Transylvania Country resident, represented PARI at the event and is shown here receiving the award from Chamber President Kevin Howell.

How can we see stars at night? Well, you could answer that question by giving me an explanation of the physiology of the eye, i.e., starlight enters through the pupil, is focused on the retina, etc. But, what I am getting at is that, with all the air between us and the celestial heavens, how does that light we see with our eyes even get to the surface of the earth?

There must be some sort of “window” through the atmosphere for visible light to reach the surface of the earth from the heavens above. Obviously, for some reason or reasons, our atmosphere is transparent to visible light in exactly the wavelengths to which our eyes are sensitive. That is no coincidence. Our eyes evolved to take advantage of the type of energy that is available to us. It would do us no evolutionary good to have evolved eyes that were sensitive only to radiations that did not efficiently illuminate the world we live in. Thus, whether we are trying to fell a mastodon with a spear of are looking for the International Space Station on a clear night, we make use of visible light.

Radio and Optical Astronomy: Two Windows on the Universe

Unfortunately, for astronomers this does not always hold true. I had an office mate in my University of Arizona graduate school days whose PhD dissertation completion was delayed a full year because many of the nights on which he had obtained tele-scope time on the big telescopes at Kitt Peak National Observatory were clouded out and he was delayed in obtaining the observational data he needed to complete his PhD research.

The Nature of Visible Light: Light is an electro-magnetic wave. Or, it’s a particle called a photon. Or, it’s both a wave and a particle. Actually, light consists of electromagnetic energy that behaves sometimes like a wave and sometimes like a par-ticle. Physicists and astronomers have to take both of these characteristics into account to fully understand how light works.

To understand light as a wave of energy, we have to consider it to be a wave that is passing by our point of observation. The frequency is given as how many of these waves pass by our point in a given interval of time. Normally, we give that fre-quency in the number of waves per second.

astronomer’s cornerDr. Bob Hayward, Astronomer/Educator

Now, the number of waves that pass by our point will depend on how fast the wave is moving. In the case of light, this is an easy answer – light travels at the speed of light. That seems very logical but it has pro-found implications. Albert Einstein showed that the speed of light in a vacuum is constant; it is (rounded off) 300,000 km/sec or 186,000 mi/sec. From basic physics we realize that the relationship among the frequency, wavelength and the speed of an electromagnetic wave such as light is given by

Light is an electromagnetic wave with a wavelength between 400 and 700 nanometers. A nanometer is a very small distance, at least by everyday standards; it is one billionth of a meter. So, light has a wavelength of 400 to 700 billionths of a meter. Thus, when we are talking about visible light, a wavelength range of 400 to 700 nanometers gives us frequencies of about 1014 i.e., 100,000,000,000,000 waves per second passing by a given point. In other words, the frequency of the wave is 1014 waves per second. Internationally, one wave per second is known as a Hertz, abbreviated Hz. So the frequency of visible light is somewhere on the order of 1014 Hz. This term is most used to measure frequencies in millions of Hertz, i.e., megahertz or MHz.

We now know that visible light is not the only type of energy inherent in what we now call the electromag-netic spectrum. The full spectrum ranges from very small wavelength radiation such as (gamma) rays and x-rays all the way to very long radio waves. Visible light is actually a very small part of the total elec-tromagnetic spectrum.

The nature of Radio Waves: Up until the 1920’s that was all there was to astronomy. Astronomers had to depend on how much light they could gather in from the skies above. They built telescopes with lenses or mirrors as large as technology and budgets permitted. And they designed auxiliary equipment such as cameras, spectographs, photometers, etc., to place on these telescopes and squeeze out as much informa-tion as they could from the tiny bits of light that came from these faraway object they were so interested in. Many of these photographs and spectra recoded on glass plates are being preserved and digitized in PARI’s

Astronomical Photographic Plate Archive (APDA).

Then, along came, as they often do, a rather seren-dipitous discovery. In 1928 Bell Labs in Holmdel, NJ was investigating the possibility of using radio waves in the 10-20 meter wavelength range to carry transatlantic telephone traffic. But, they kept get-ting interference on their receivers in that range. They gave the job of determining the source of this interference to Karl Jansky a physics graduate of the University of Wisconsin. Jansky built a receiving antenna array designed to receive radio signals at about 14.5 meters wavelength, frequency 20.5 MHz.

As Jansky studied the radio waves he was receiving on his antenna array, he realized he was receiving radio “noise” from thunderstorms. But, there was still a mysterious signal that was coming from an unknown source. One thing he did notice was that this signal was being received about four minutes earlier each night. In other words it had a periodicity of 23 hours 56 minutes. Bingo! Any astronomer knows that this is the sidereal rotation period of good ol’ planet earth.

What is the sidereal period? We all know that the earth rotates on its axis in 24 hours. But, that is only if you measure it with respect to the sun as we do when we plan our daily lives. But, due to the earth’s revo-lution around the sun, the sun appears to move roughly one degree eastward per day in front of the zodiac constellations. This is due to the earth’s motion of 360 degrees of orbit around the sun which it completes in roughly 365¼ days, i.e., 360°/365.25 days 1°/day. Thus, the source of Jansky’s mysterious interfer-ence must have been coming from something on the celestial sphere of the sky! Jansky had inadvertently built the first radio telescope; he had invented radio astronomy! Further measurements and investigation determined that what he was picking up was a radio signal from a source in the constellation of Sagittarius; he had discovered that the center of our Milky Way galaxy is a source of radio waves.

Two Windows on the Universe (Continued)

Radio Astronomy Today: So, let’s rephrase my opening question but in the light (pun intended) of the radio spectrum. How can a radio telescope see the center of the Milky Way, now known as radio source Sagittarius A, at night…or during the day for that matter? It’s because not only is there a window in the sky that lets visible light reach the surface of the earth so we can enjoy watching the gods play among the constellations at night, but there is also a window through the earth’s ionosphere, that layer of charged particles or ions, that lets radio waves reach the surface of the earth. This window stretches from about 0.3 millimeters (A millimeter is 1/1000 of a meter.) at the edge of the far infrared to about 30 meters above which the earth’s ionosphere is opaque to radio waves.

Over the years astronomers have realized that not only is the sky full of optical sources like the stars, it is also full of radio sources. Some of these are stars but, in general, stars are not strong radio sources. We can “see” the sun with a radio telescope, during the day, of course, because it is so close to us. Radio waves typically result from charged particles of matter moving very quickly in a magnetic field. You cell phone transmits a signal when electrons from the battery are caused to move in a calculated manner, thus giving off radio signals that can be received by another device and turned into sound waves in a speaker or an image on a screen. Radio sources in the sky are typically nebulae of hot gases, galaxies with active cores, or even planets such as Jupiter whose strong magnetic field is disturbed by the motion of its satellite Io.

While some radio telescopes today do consist of antenna wires strung between poles similar to the one Jansky used, most consist of dish shaped antennae like the ones at PARI. (Basically, if you have DIRECTV or DISH Network satellite television, you have a ra-dio telescope, a small dish that receives radio waves from an object in the sky, a satellite.) Just as your eye receives light waves and gathers them in to a focus on a receiver, called a retina, at the back of your eyeball, radio telescope dishes focus radio waves on a re-ceiver that is generally held in place at the focus of the telescope.

Since radio signals from astronomical sources are very weak, the larger the telescope one uses, the more success there will be to de-tecting and analyzing a signal. PARI’s two main radio telescopes are both 26 meters (85 feet) in diameter. PARI’s signature telescope “Smiley” is a 4.6 meter (15 feet) dish. It is used primarily for an in-structional program that allows students to access to control it over the internet. Typically, they view the sun or Sagittarius A during the daytime since radio waves are not washed out by full sunlight. (Oth-erwise, you couldn’t use your cellphone or listen to a radio during the day.) The largest radio telescope in the world is the 1000-foot Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico. This magnificent instrument is built into a circular depression in the land. It cannot be steered physically. However, it can observe objects in a limited area of the sky by moving the receiver suspended of the dish. Thus, in this case the receiver is not held at a single focus above the dish. Current-ly some radio telescopes event consist of multiple antennae spaced across a large area of land such as the Very Large Array in New Mex-ico. How does a radio telescope “see”? In visible light our eyes focus


Courtesy of the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center, Arecibo Observatory, a facility of the National Science Foundation

a complete image onto the retina of our eyes to create an image that is interpreted by our brains. Our eyes detect light throughout that 400 to 700 nanometer range of the electromagnetic spectrum. A radio tele-scope receives a single signal from a single point in the sky and at a single wavelength in the 0.3 millimeter to 30 meter radio range of the spectrum. If more than one receiver at differing wavelengths is installed, a radio telescope could receive multiple signals at the same time.

To produce an image, the telescope has to be moved back and forth over the source to detect signals from a multi-tude of point across the object of in-terest. Many times these signals are displayed in visible light in what are termed “false color images. (We cannot view radio waves directly. If they could, our eyes would have to be as big as at least a small radio telescope.)

Summary: So we find that there are two “windows” to the sky. One stretches from 300 to 700 nanometers and allows visible light to reach the surface of the earth. The other stretches from 0.3 millimeters to 30 me-ters and lets radio emissions from celestial objects reach our earthbound radio telescopes. What about the other wavelengths listed in the graphic earlier in this article? We are now aware that celestial objects emit radiations virtually across the entire electromagnetic spectrum. The problem for earthbound observers is that at those wavelengths, the windows are shut tight; those radiations do not get through our atmosphere and ionosphere. To study objects in those wavelengths we have to rely on satellites that can be placed high above where there are not even any “windows” to be closed.

References:

“Arecibo Observatory,” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arecibo_Observatory

Astronoblog, Haverford Astronomy department blog. Haverford College, 370 Lancaster Avenue. Haver-ford, PA 19041, http://blogs.haverford.edu/astronoblog/

“How To Hear Radio Signals from Jupiter,” Space Today Online. http://www.spacetoday.org/SolSys/Jupi-ter/JupiterRadio.html

“Karl Jansky and the Discovery of Cosmic Radio Waves,” National Radio Astronomy Observatory, http://www.nrao.edu/whatisra/hist_jansky.shtml

“Electromagnetic Spectrum,” TutorVista.com. http://physics.tutorvista.com/waves/electromagnetic-spec-trum.html

False color 13 mm radio image of Jupiter.The “wings” on the side are the orbit of Io.


Please support the PARI mission!PARI is a public not-for-profit organization. Financially, we are dependent upon contributions and grants for our educational and research programs, and for the many operating expenses associated with maintaining the campus and our facilities.

If you have recently contributed, we thank you for your support. If not, please support PARI and our mission with a contribution. PARI is a public not-for-profit 501 (c)(3) and all donations are tax deductible to the full amount allowed by law.

To make a contribution now, please click below. If you prefer to mail a contribution, please send it to: PARI, Attn: Director of Finance, One PARI Drive, Rosman, NC 28772.

The Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (PARI) is a public not-for-profit 501 (c)(3) foundation established in 1998. Located in thePisgah Forest 30 miles southwest of Asheville, NC, the PARI campus is a dark sky location for astronomy and was selected in 1962 by NASA as the site for one of the first U.S. satellite tracking facilities. Today, the 200 acre campus houses radio and optical telescopes, earth science instruments, 30 buildings, a fulltime staff and all the infrastructure necessary to support STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education and research. PARI offers educational programs at all levels, from K-12 through post-graduate research. PARI is home to the Astro-nomical Photographic Data Archive and a member of the NC Grassroots Science Museums Collaborative.

PARI’s Exhibit Gallery displays a collection of rare meteorites as well as NASA Space Shuttle artifacts, many of which have flown in space.For more information about PARI and its programs, visit www.pari.edu. Follow PARI on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Astronomy_PARI.“Like” PARI on Facebook at www.facebook.com/Pisgah.Astronomical.Research.Institute.

Pisgah Astronomical Research InstituteOne PARI Drive, Rosman, NC 28772

Phone: (828) 862-5554 Fax: (828) 862-5877 Web: www.pari.edu

Don Cline President [email protected] Saucier Executive Director [email protected] Castelaz, PhD Lead Scientist [email protected] Whitworth Director of Learning Experiences [email protected] Hayward, PhD Astronomer/Educator [email protected] Owen Chief Information Officer [email protected] Krochmal IT Support Manager [email protected] Goldsmith Research Director [email protected] Barker Director of APDA [email protected] Avant Communications Director [email protected] Daves Director of Finance, HR & Development [email protected] Armstrong Special Projects [email protected] Chappell Visitor Support/Volunteers [email protected] DeLisle Software Engineering Manager [email protected] Curto Facilities Coordinator [email protected] McCall Facilities/Security [email protected] Sinclair Curator of Meteorites and Minerals [email protected] Daves Facilities [email protected] Steiner Special Projects Consultant [email protected]

Your generosity in supporting PARI and our mission is appreciated and valued. Your gift will allow PARI to advance STEM learning, empower people of all ages to become more scientifically literate and encourage young learners to consider STEM careers.

Thank you for helping make all of this possible.

http://migration.pari.edu/supporting-paris-mission/

http://pari.edu

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