Milky Way Over Kitt Peak
Image Credit: Dean Ketelsen
This image was taken on the night of August 11/12. Dean Ketelsen and his wife went up a night early to see some Perseid meteors before the shower peak the next night (taking advantage of clear skies when you can during monsoon season is a must!). This shot was taken from the public parking lot with a Nikon 16mm Fisheye lens at F/2.8 on a Canon XSi camera. The shot was taken using a Polarie tracking mount running at half speed to split the trailing between the stars and trees and domes. The crescent moon was just above the horizon lighting up the 2.1 meter dome at left and the WIYN 0.9 meter telescope at right. The center of the Milky Way galaxy is centered between the constellations of Sagittarius just left, and Scorpius to the right. Vist Dean's blog at http://www.theketelsens.blogspot.com
Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), part of the National
Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), supports the most diverse
collection of astronomical observatories on Earth for nighttime
optical and infrared astronomy and daytime study of the Sun. Sharing the
mountaintop site
with the National Solar Observatory, KPNO, founded in 1958, operates
three major nighttime telescopes and hosts the facilities of consortia
which operate 22 optical telescopes and two radio telescopes.
(See the Tenant Observatories list.)
Kitt Peak is located 56 miles southwest of Tucson, AZ, in the Schuk Toak
District on the Tohono O'odham Nation and has a Visitor Center open daily
to the public.
If you need to contact someone at NOAO but are uncertain of that person's email
address, simply send email to "first_inital_last_name_at_noao.edu", i.e.,
bsmith_at_noao.edu or jdoe_at_noao.edu. A general
purpose email account has been set up to answer any questions you have about
observing at Kitt Peak and don't know who to ask. Any and all questions you have can be e-mailed to this address: kpno_at_noao.edu and it will be forwarded to the appropriate person.
