2002 STUDENT CHALLENGE AWARDS PROJECT BRIEFING

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR:

Dr. Donald E. Casperson, Technical Staff Member

AFFILIATION:

Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)

Space & Remote Sensing Sciences

MAILING ADDRESS:

Mail Stop D436

Los Alamos National Laboratory

Los Alamos NM 87545

TELEPHONE:

505 667-1475 or 505 665-3620

EMAIL:

dcasperson@lanl.gov

Co-PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR:

Dr. Galen R. Gisler, Technical Staff Member

AFFILIATION:

Los Alamos National Laboratory

MAILING ADDRESS:

Mail Stop B220

Los Alamos National Laboratory

Los Alamos NM 87545

TELEPHONE:

505 667-1375

EMAIL:

grg@lanl.gov

Co-PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR:

Dr. Todd J. Haines, Technical Staff Member

AFFILIATION:

Los Alamos National Laboratory

Neutron Science & Technology

MAILING ADDRESS:

Mail Stop H803

Los Alamos National Laboratory

Los Alamos NM 87545

TELEPHONE:

505 667-3638

EMAIL:

haines@lanl.gov

 PROJECT TITLE:

Transient Phenomena in Astrophysics

RESEARCH SITE:

Jemez Mountains of Northern New Mexico, particularly the Fenton Hill site of the Los Alamos National Laboratory

RENDEZVOUS SITE:

Albuquerque International Airport, approximately 90 miles south of Los Alamos

TEAM DATES IN FIELD:

June 16 - June 30, 2001

TEAM SIZE: 8

 Transient phenomena in astrophysics include some of the most enigmatic and exciting subjects of study in the Universe. Among the phenomena included are gamma-ray bursts, supernovae, comets and asteroids, flare stars and other types of variable stars, active galactic nuclei and quasars, and microlensing events. Each of these represents a rich and complex field of study with rewards that include greater understanding of the origins and eventual fate of the Universe in which we live, and greater understanding of the fundamental physics of matter. Yet the systematic study of such transients has barely begun. Our project focuses on the use of astronomical telescopes, programmed to respond to announcements of high-energy transients (such as gamma-ray bursts or X-ray transients) while carrying out a systematic program of detection and identification of new optical transients.

The students will participate in running our observatory at Fenton Hill, learning how to use various telescopes for visual observations and for electronic imaging, with one of the goals being the identification of new transient sources. By the summer of 2001, we will also have several modest radio telescope components in place. The students will be able to observe galactic radio sources and to appreciate the multi-wavelength nature of our observatory in particular, and of astronomy in general.

Additionally, we will facilitate further development of our Fenton Hill Observatory by continuing the site characterization study conducted by the 1997 Student Challenge Awards team and continued by the 1998, 1999, and 2000 teams. Site characterization entails, among other things, making measurements of astronomical "seeing" and atmospheric extinction. Scientists strive to place large telescopes in locations that provide the best possible seeing. "Seeing" refers to the distortion of light produced by the motion of air currents in the atmosphere. Resolving double stars is the traditional way of measuring seeing. When the seeing is bad, then double stars that are close together will merge into one, and when it is good, they can be separated cleanly. At any given site, the seeing will vary from night to night, but a desirable thing to know for the purposes of developing an observatory is how good the seeing can be at a particular site, and how frequently it is bad. There's a lot of folklore on what makes good sites good, but little real understanding of the phenomenon. Atmospheric extinction refers to the absorption, refraction, and scattering of light as it passes through the atmosphere. This effect causes a star to appear brighter when it is directly overhead than when it is low in the sky. Like seeing, extinction also varies from night to night, with the presence or absence of particles, aerosols, and water vapor in the air.

Each of our SCAP campaigns has included a series of lectures on a variety of astrophysics topics, by LANL experts and by noted external speakers as well. Over the past several years the Earthwatch campaign has been coordinating with the "Astronomy Days" lecture series sponsored by the Laboratory's Bradbury Science Museum; this year is no exception. Exposure to our national laboratory environment includes tours of interesting laboratory facilities and hikes through archaeological sites. As noted in past campaign evaluations, our annual tour of the Very Large Array radio telescope on the plains of San Augustin, near Socorro, NM, has become a staple of the Earthwatch experience.

 1. THE PROJECT

Transient phenomena in astrophysics are among the most interesting and enigmatic subjects of study in the entire Universe. Yet, with the notable exceptions of the wide-field satellite experiments - BATSE, HETE-2, ALEXIS, and the MILAGRO detector now in operation, present astrophysical research programs sample the world of transients only haphazardly. It can be argued that we sample the time domain much more poorly than we do the spectral or the spatial domains (Bondi, 1970; Schaefer 1989; Griest 1996; Paczynski 1996). It is our ultimate aim to develop a multi-wavelength observational facility, at the Los Alamos site on Fenton Hill, dedicated to the study of transient phenomena.

We include here a list of examples of transient phenomena for which the Fenton Hill Observatory will contribute data.

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) were discovered by Los Alamos scientists with the Department of Energy VELA satellites in the 1960s. The source of their enormous energy output remains largely unknown. During 1997, the first optical counterparts to GRBs were detected. Some of them have given the first direct distance determination, placing them at cosmological distances near the edge of the observable Universe. This population of GRBs may be the earliest discrete source population to arise in the history of the Universe. Therefore, they may offer important fundamental clues to the development of structure and the nature of matter. GRBs are far away from us yet readily detectable in our satellite-borne gamma ray detectors. Though they shine only briefly, they are the most luminous objects known anywhere. Alerts for follow-up observations are provided by the GCN (GRB Coordinates Network), which included signals from the BATSE detectors on board NASA's Compton Gamma Ray Observatory satellite until July of 2000 when it re-entered the atmosphere. The HETE-2 satellite was successfully launched in October, 2000, and currently provides triggers to the GRB research community.

In January 1999, one of our ROTSE telescopes produced a sensational new result. A gamma-ray burst was detected as a brief but very bright optical transient source, just 22 seconds after BATSE first detected the gamma rays from it (Akerlof et a1, 1999) For the first time, visible light was seen from one of these enigmatic objects while the gamma rays were still being received. This object would have been seen as a "star" in binoculars (if one had chanced to look at the right spot in the sky) that brightened enough to be seen in less than half a minute, and faded away to invisibility just a few minutes later. Since the object was later shown to reside at the edge of the Universe, it was briefly the brightest visible-light source we have ever known! Plots of our data on this event can be found at http://laastro/rotse/grb990123/.

Active Galactic Nuclei and Quasars are the most energetic long-lived phenomena known. These emit radiation at almost every frequency we have been able to observe, from very long wavelength radio waves to very high energy (TeV) gamma rays, and are variable on time scales from sub-seconds to years. We do not understand these objects very well, but we believe they are powered by the accretion of matter onto million solar-mass (or bigger) black holes. The transient phenomena observed in these sources could be associated with the accretion process, or more generally with the dynamics of matter in the vicinity of the black hole. More observations of flaring and variability, preferably coordinated over many wavelengths, would give us valuable new information as to the nature and character of these fascinating objects.

Supernovae are the explosions of stars at the end of their lives. They are most often seen in distant galaxies, frequently outshining the entire galaxy. Supernovae are as yet unpredictable. They are best discovered through a regular program of monitoring a large number of candidate galaxies. Aside from their intrinsic interest, supernovae function as standard candles for the measurement of the scale, age, and evolution of the Universe.

Microlensing events are examples of the phenomenon predicted by Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, of the bending of light by gravitational mass. Since most of the mass of the Universe apparently does not shine by its own light, it must be detected indirectly by the effect that it has on the light of distant stars. The study of microlensing events, of which about l00 have already been observed, can tell us much about the location and physical characteristics of the dark matter, and, therefore, about the main constituent of the Universe.

Variable stars have fascinated humans since the dawn of our species. While we know much about how many of them work, we still do not understand all the different types of variability, and how stars become variable, or cease variability. Certain types of variable stars are also standard candles for measuring cosmological distances. A small portion of ROTSE-l sky patrol database has recently been analyzed to generate a new partial catalog of variable stars, most of which are newly identified (Akerlof et al, 2000). The remainder of the ROTSE-I database is being analyzed at the present time in order to complete that catalog of variable stars.

Flare stars are low-temperature stars that experience sudden brightenings, on typical time scales of sub-seconds to minutes. Sudden brightening occurs via a mechanism thought to be the same as that which produces the much more modest flares on our own sun, namely the rapid reconnection of magnetic flux lines and the consequent conversion of magnetic energy to accelerated particles, heat, and light.

Comets and Asteroids are temporary visitors to our part of space. They have long been subjects of human fascination, dread, and fear. The thrill of discovery has motivated many thousands of amateurs to spend long hours sweeping the heavens with modest equipment. Some of these people have been rewarded with objects bearing their own names, yet the population and size distribution of these objects is still poorly known. The mounting evidence that such objects may have been responsible for some of the mass species extinctions on Earth and the recent observation of a comet's demise in the atmosphere of Jupiter have heightened interest in the task of thorough characterization of those Solar System objects that might someday be a threat to life on Earth.

A multi-wavelength observational facility could detect all of these transient phenomena and possibly reveal objects that are either not yet known or are completely new characteristics of previously known objects. The technology needed to establish an observatory that can detect such diverse transient phenomena and discriminate among them involves telescopes in several wavelength regimes, appropriate software and computational hardware for digesting enormous quantities of data in real time, robotic components to ensure that data are taken whenever conditions are appropriate, network links to bring the data to the attention of researchers and to provide alerts (in both directions), and massive data storage equipment. The optical component of such an observatory should eventually include both wide-field small aperture telescopes and large aperture narrow-field telescopes.

Fenton Hill Observatory is a multi-wavelength facility, dedicated to the study of astrophysical transient sources, spanning the range of the electromagnetic spectrum from MILAGRO's short wavelength, high-energy (TeV) cosmic ray telescope to optical telescopes used in the visible, to the 2-meter and 10-meter radio wavelength range with several antennas and receivers.

The Fenton Hill Site with the Observatory Pad in the center

The main site at Fenton Hill, in the Jemez Mountains west of Los Alamos, is far enough away from Los Alamos and other cities that city lights do not contribute appreciably to the night sky It is also at a high altitude (8700 feet) and very dry.

In these and other respects, it is an ideal observatory site. The development of the optical component of this observatory began in 1997 and has continued since then. At this time, the optical effort at Fenton Hill Observatory includes several components, among them REACT, RAPTOR, and the Hands-On-Universe Berkeley telescope. To describe them briefly:

REACT (Research and Education Automatically Controlled Telescope) is a modest aperture telescope for follow-up studies with a field of view of a fraction of a degree and resolution of a second of arc. REACT is a modified 14-inch aperture Celestron telescope housed in a fiberglass dome structure that was installed at the Fenton Hill site in June 1998. We are still in the process of upgrading its operation.

In the fall of 2001 a 0.75-meter aperture telescope from the University of California at Berkeley was installed on the central pad area of Fenton Hill, as part of the Hands-On- Universe web-based educational outreach program. It is expected to be operational in the summer of 2002. This telescope will also be used to search for supernovae and to respond to GRB triggers as well as to our RAPTOR triggers.

RAPTOR is the newest addition to Fenton Hill. This ambitious project utilizes wide-field imaging lenses and CCD cameras to search for optical transients in real time. This requires a great deal of computing power, as 30-second exposures are analyzed and compared to each other and to previously tabulated lists of objects in the field of view, in order to identify ongoing transient effects. Validated triggers are sent to other, more sensitive telescopes for continued follow-up of the potential transient events. RAPTOR will also respond to GRB triggers sent via the GCN.

ROTSE (Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment) is an important component of our transient astrophysics observational tools. ROTSE telescope hardware and software is associated with a collaborative effort of Los Alamos, the University of Michigan, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. ROTSE is dedicated to the search for prompt optical counterparts to GRBs, and additionally to provide a database of archived sky patrol images to search for objects such as variable stars. Although these telescopes were originally slated to be situated at Fenton Hill, the need to access them frequently required that they be located closer to the main laboratory complex. As a result they have been placed at the LANSCE accelerator site only a few miles away from the main Los Alamos technical area.

ROTSE is made up of two separate instruments. ROTSE-I was operated in semi-automatic mode since February 1998, as a four-barreled 4-inch telephoto lens set with a combined field of view of 16 degrees square. In addition to responding to satellite-based triggers of GRBs, ROTSE-I was capable of doing a complete sky patrol in about an hour. It generated an archived database of approximately 4 terabytes over its lifetime.

ROTSE-III has taken over the duties of searching for optical counterparts. It is a set of 45-cm telescopes with fast-slewing mounts, the first of which is currently being tested at the LANSCE site beside ROTSE-I. This first of several ROTSE-III instruments will eventually be shipped to the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia, to provide southern hemisphere coverage.

* RADIO ASTRONOMY

At the present time there are two modest radio telescope installations at Fenton Hill &endash; a three element beam antenna for listening to Jupiter's decametric radio emissions in the

18-26 MHz bands, and a pair of spatially separated YAGI beam antennas operating as a two-element interferometer at 2-meter wavelength (151 MHz), which serves primarily

as a student demonstration tool. Recently we began construction of a phased-array of 151 MHz dipole antennas for observation of prompt low-frequency radio emission from gamma-ray bursts. This construction will continue throughout 2002 and it is likely that this year's Earthwatch students will be involved in the ongoing characterization and testing of this array.

Further information on the site and scientific objectives of Fenton Hill Observatory can be found on our web site (http//laastro.lanl.gov/fho/). This web site includes some "live" pictures of the Observatory site, and an account of the activities of our 1997 - 2001 Student Challenge Awards teams. The 2002 team may also develop a web site to document their expedition experience and findings.

2. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND METHODS

 Running the Fenton Hill Observatory

Until quite recently, visible-light sky surveys were done only occasionally and were a substantial and costly effort. The enormous data-handling problem is what prevents routine monitoring of the entire sky. When you consider the fact that a telescope can resolve objects in the sky down to a fraction of a second of arc, and there are close to a trillion square arc seconds in the whole sky, you begin to realize the magnitude of the problem.

The advent of electronic imaging systems such as charge-coupled devices (CCDs), and of fast computers, computer networks, and data storage systems, has begun to make routine monitoring of the entire visible sky a conceivable ambition. The technology is almost within reach; the time is ripe to begin the design and implementation of systems that do this job. The instruments outlined above can form part of such a system.

But building robust automated machinery and recording the data is only the barest start. The data must then be calibrated, stored in a sensible way, and then interrogated to find objects of interest, for example, objects that change in brightness or move from one exposure to the next.

In the days when astronomical data were exclusively recorded on glass photographic plates, the instrument used for finding variable stars and moving sources was the blink comparator. Inside the blink comparator, two plates were placed side by side on a movable stage, and a microscope with a flip mirror was used to inspect (or "blink") the two plates. The researcher would spend many hours on a single pair of large plates, systematically steering the movable stage under the microscope lenses. It was tedious mind-numbing work, and a deterrent to astronomical careers for many generations of students! Pluto, most asteroids, and almost all variable stars known before the 1970s were discovered using this 20th century equivalent of a medieval torture chamber.

Electronic "blinking" of CCD images is now routine and makes the task of transient astrophysics far easier. But it is still largely a manual process because each image must be carefully calibrated first and human inspection of the variable lists produced by an automatic program often turns up spurious effects. When sky patrols are done several times per night, however, fully automatic processing will be essential to reduce the many gigabytes of image data to lists of variable (or moving) sources.

The business of transients in astronomy necessarily involves the communication of alerts. Any observational project in astrophysical transients must necessarily either respond to alerts, generate alerts, or both. The reason for this is inherent in the rapid changes that occur and the need to obtain data while those changes are occurring in order to get a handle on the physics. Multi-wavelength and multi-site coverage is essential, as are imaging, spectroscopy, and photometry.

For gamma-ray bursts, rapid response to alerts has at last borne fruit, beginning in 1997, in the identification of optical counterparts, and the consequential deepening of our understanding. For near-earth objects, generation of (and response to) alerts is what enables the calculation of orbits. For other types of transients, alerts permit the essential follow-up with more sensitive instruments, or at other wavelengths that can help elucidate the physics.

During our campaign, the students will 1earn how electronic imaging systems operate, and will have hands-on experience with a CCD camera. They will learn how to use the image analysis software that accompanies the camera. Some examples of professional astronomers' software packages can be seen at:

IRAF (<http://ira.noao.edu>,

SAO Image (http://tdcwww.harvard.edu/software/saoimage/),

Gaia (http://star-www.dur.ac.uk/~pdper/gaia/gaia.html),

or the software developed by the TASS project

(http://p674p06.isc.rit.edu/tass/tass.html).

Test data from our Fenton Hill telescopes (and also from our smaller telescopes in a classroom demonstration setting) will be available for trying out data reduction techniques, including examples of electronic blinking. A useful website which links several automated observatory projects an be found at:

<http://www.eia.brad.ac.uk/r/automated.html>

Site Characterization Study

To place the electronic observatory into an appropriate context, the students will (weather permitting) also participate in night-time observing using their own eyes, with the telescopes we have at the Observatory. The students will learn the pitfalls of observational astronomy and additionally assist in the characterization of our site for future development.

The ideal astronomical site would have very dark skies, be far from any artificial sources of light, and far from any sources of air pollution. It would be in a dry climate with consistently good weather. It would be at high altitude, so that less atmosphere lies above it. Somewhat at conflict with these requirements, it should also be relatively accessible for the transport of equipment and scientists, reachable by electric power and modern communications, and convenient to sources of technical know-how. One can do preliminary site selection merely by inspecting maps to determine to what degree these requirements are likely to be satisfied at particular locations. But there are other, more subtle criteria that demand careful measurements on site. The most important of these are atmospheric extinction and "seeing".

Atmospheric extinction measures the transparency of the air. We view the stars through the blanket of oxygen, nitrogen, and trace gases that sustain life, and though it seems mostly transparent to us, it greatly affects the light that we get from stars. One way to avoid this problem is to put a telescope in space. Different constituents of the atmosphere absorb or scatter light by different amounts, and aerosols (tiny droplets or particles suspended m the air) are the worst culprits. This is partly why we go to high altitude sites distant from sources of pollution, but even the best sites will have periods of high aerosol content due to unusual weather conditions, volcanic activity, fires, pollen, etc.

In order to measure the effects of the atmosphere on light transmission, ideally we would compare the brightness of a star with no atmosphere to its brightness with the atmosphere present. Both measurements would be obtained using the same experimental equipment. We can't do this! Instead we look at the brightness of a star that is directly overhead (i.e. at zenith) and watch its brightness decline (and its color change) as it sets toward the west, or we look at many stars of similar brightness but different zenith angles. This works because the path of light through the atmosphere is shortest for stars at the zenith, and gets steadily longer as stars are at greater and greater zenith angles. To a good approximation, we can regard the atmosphere above an observatory site as a thick slab (ignoring the curvature of the Earth). Light from a star at 60 degrees from the zenith will then pass through twice as much air as light from a star at the zenith (the functional form of this is the trigonometric secant function), and will therefore have twice as much atmospheric extinction, all else being equal. Of course we have to compensate for the fact that the atmospheric conditions will vary across the sky, and with time, and there is a small correction for the curvature of the Earth.

"Seeing" describes the size and steadiness of the images of stars. In good seeing, the stars are tiny, sharp points of light that shine steadily. In bad seeing, the stars are large and fuzzy, and dance around. Air motions are responsible for seeing, and also for the twinkling of stars that can be seen by the unaided eye. The air motions that cause twinkling, however, are slower and bigger in scale than those that cause seeing. It's the fine-scale turbulent motions in the atmosphere that are harder to compensate for, and much more troublesome to the astronomer. Seeing is measured as the size of the smallest image that can be distinctly resolved in a telescope. The best sites on Earth have consistently good seeing in the range of a few tenths of a second of arc. Typical observatory sites have consistent seeing at about one arc second, and seeing is considered poor above 3 arc seconds.

Three traditional ways of measuring seeing are:

(1) inspect the telescope field visually for known double stars with separations in the range of sub-arcseconds to several seconds, and note the smallest separation that can cleanly be resolved;

(2) obtain electronic images of star fields on CCD cameras, and carefully measure the image of each star for its total brightness and width;

(3) obtain a series of images on a given star field very rapidly, say 20-30 frames a second, and measure the size and motion of the star images in the animation sequence.

These experiments are generally performed repeatedly for a large number of star fields or double stars at a given site, and the quoted result is formed from the assembly of data obtained.

3. LITERATURE CITED

The students would do well to consult the Web sites referenced in this section of the briefing, particularly those on imaging software and sky surveys. In addition, the following articles may be found useful, particularly the one by Paczynski, a copy of which is included with this package.

C. Akerlof, R. Balsano, S. Barthelmy, J. Bloch, P. Butterworth, D. Casperson, T. Cline, S. Fletcher, G. Gisler, J. Hills, R. Kehoe, B. Lee, S. Marshall, T. McKay, R. Miller, W. Priedhorsky, J. Szymanski, J. Wren, 1999, Nature, 398: 400-402, "Observation of Contemporaneous Optical Radiation from a Gamma-Ray Burst"

C. Akerlof, S. Amrose, R. Balsano, J. Bloch, D. Casperson, S. Fletcher, G. Gisler, J. Hills, R. Kehoe, B. Lee, S. Marshall, T. McKay, A. Pawl, J. Schaefer, J. Szymanski, J. Wren, "ROTSE All Sky Surveys for Variable Stars I: Test Fields", Astronomical Journal, 119:1900-1913 (April, 2000)

Hermann Bondi, 1970, Q. J. Roy. Astr. Soc. 11,443, Presidential Address"

Bradley Schaefer, 1989, Astrophys. J. 337,927, "Flashes from Normal Stars"

Norman Sperling, 1990, "Light Pollution: An Overview," in Light Pollution Problems and Solutions, Astronomical Society of the Pacific.

James S. Sweitzer, 1993, Mercury 22,13, "The Last Observatory on Earth".

Bohdan Paczynski, 1996, "The Future of Massive Variability Searches," in 12th IAP Colloquium: Variable Stars and the Astrophysical Returns of Microlensing Surveys (a copy of this paper is included with this briefing package).

4. STUDENT ASSIGNMENTS

The research team will spend some classroom time learning some of the fundamentals of astronomy, coordinate systems, various types of optical and radio telescopes, electronic imaging systems, and of image analysis software. An early field trip to the observatory site will acquaint them with the equipment we are using, and, weather permitting, give them some exposure to observational astronomy.

In the field, the research team will use moderate size telescopes (e.g. 7-inch Meade, 12- inch Meade, 14-inch Celestron cassegrain telescopes) to acquaint themselves with the night sky, to perform initial observations of objects of potential interest, and to examine the effects of atmospheric extinction and seeing. The first few days will be spent working toward an understanding of the concepts of atmospheric transmission of light, and a consideration of qualities that make for good potential observatory sites.

The students will learn the basics of navigating the night sky, the location of the major constellations, of bright double stars and nebulae. They will also learn how stellar brightness is measured, the magnitude scale and the concept of standard stars. They will learn to develop confidence in their own judgments as to the relative brightness of stars, an important scientific measurement that has been done by eye from the time of the ancient Greeks until our very own day, when it is only now being supplemented (not replaced) by sophisticated electronics.

The team will decide how to allocate responsibilities for making measurements. For example, the team might set up three stations, one devoted to visual measurements of extinction, one to visual seeing measurements, and a third to electronic seeing or extinction measurements (or both). The team might then divide into subgroups of two or three students each, to alternate among these stations. Two students might start on visual extinction measurements, looking at a series of relatively bright stars and determining their relative magnitudes by eye. They might then move to visual seeing measurements, where they would inspect a series of double stars to see how well they can be separated. Then they would spend some time with the electronic measurements. It is important to rotate each student through all types of measurements to limit individual observing biases and assure the most objective possible measures. The use of different techniques will also build each student's familiarity with, and confidence in, the science of measurement and analysis.

In addition to the measurement efforts, the students will also spend time doing some recreational star-hopping to look at some of the spectacular beauties of the night sky: things like nebulae, star clusters, and planets. Logs of these observations, noting colors, vividness, ease of locating and acquiring them in the telescope eyepieces will also prove very valuable for the students themselves as well as for the development of our observatory. Observations will run from evening twilight until exhaustion or morning twilight (remember, nights are shortest in June!).

In the laboratory, the team will have access to modern computers networked to each other, to the observatory's data archives, and to the observatory site. These computers will have astronomical software and image reduction packages installed on them, and the team will have opportunities to examine sample data (including their own!) in the search for transient objects, and to compare these to lists of known such objects.

We will be very careful watchers of both the moon and the weather to make the best use of our time. The timing of this campaign is such that the full moon, and thus the worst viewing conditions, occurs approximately halfway into the campaign. Useful dark-sky observations will be best in the early days of the campaign.

We will adapt ourselves as closely as we can to a night-time work schedule to optimize our performance out in the field. Certain field trips, seminars, and other activities may require us to change our schedule from time to time, but we will not schedule any group activities before 2:00 PM on any day. The time from morning twilight until noon is intended for sleeping.

Interspersed with optical observations, or alternatively when the weather does not permit optical observations, we can take advantage of the radio telescope instruments in place at Fenton Hill (they can work 24 hours a day, even in cloudy weather!) to observe radio emission from bright galactic radio sources, or even from the Sun during the daytime.

If the thunderstorm season starts early this year, we will have to take precautions. The thunderstorms tend to occur in the afternoon and evening, just when we would be arriving at our site and setting up. Of course, the top of a mountain is just exactly the wrong place to be during a thunderstorm, and New Mexico has far more than its share of lightning-caused deaths. The students will receive lightning and wilderness safety training (possibly also first aid) before embarking on any field expeditions. We will teach them signs of natural hazards in the field and appropriate courses of action for avoiding those hazards. The team will follow a conservative policy on safety issues during the campaign.

Finally, the students will maintain a log of their activities and design a web site to serve as team log and permanent record of the project

5. STAFF

 Principal Investigators:

 Dr. Don Casperson is a staff scientist working on optics and detector development for astronomical and satellite projects. Dr. Casperson received his Ph.D in Physics from Yale University (1976). He is a member of the ROTSE collaboration team, and is highly committed to educational outreach efforts in astronomy and physics. He is leading an effort to establish radio astronomy capabilities for Fenton Hill, including a phased-array antenna for detection of prompt radio counterparts to gamma-ray bursts. He will be with students for the majority of their time on the project.

 Dr. Galen Gisler is the Associate Director of the Institute for the Nuclear and Particle Astrophysics & Cosmology at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He is also an adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, and a member of the ROTSE collaboration team. Dr. Gisler received his Ph.D. in Astrophysics from Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK (1976). He will be with the students for approximately 1/4 of their time on the project.

Dr. Todd Haines is a J. Robert Oppenheimer Fellow in the Physics Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He is also an assistant research scientist in the Department of Physics at the University of Maryland. Dr. Haines received his Ph D. in Physics from the University of California, Irvine (1986). He is teamleader for particle astrophysics, in charge of the MILAGRO ultra-high-energy gamma-ray telescope now in operation at Fenton Hill.

Resident Advisor / Student Supervision:

 Scott Johnson, an elementary school teacher from Los Alamos, NM, will be residing at the hotel with the students and participating in most of our activities. He will also be helping to organize the offsite activities and field trips.

Additional LANL staff and students with whom the team will interact:

Jim Wren is a staff technician involved with the ROTSE and the RAPTOR telescope projects.

Stephen Bracht, a student at NM Tech, will be returning for his fifth summer of Fenton Hill related projects and assistance with the Earthwatch expedition.

Jake Chatterton, a student at Iowa State University and a former Earthwatch student (Summer 2000) will be assisting with this year's expedition.

 6. RESEARCH AREA

 The Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) was originally established in 1943 by the U.S. Army's Manhattan Engineer District for the purpose of developing the first atomic bombs. Though its primary mission remains nuclear weapons research and development, many programs are conducted at LANL, including basic research in the area of physics, chemistry, radiology, and medicine. About 12,000 employees work at LANL, mostly in the main technical area. The entire site spreads over 43 square miles.

 Los Alamos sits on the Pajarito Plateau, a shelf off the eastern flank of the Jemez Mountains, which is an ancient volcano. The local landscape is characterized by potrillos, fingers of high, relatively flat land separated by deep rocky canyons. The shaded canyons harbor ponderosa pine trees, while the mesa tops are populated by pinon and juniper. Ponderosa pine becomes more common again at altitudes just above the mesa tops, and is eventually succeeded by fir and spruce and aspen at yet higher elevations in the mountains. The team will work in all of these habitats, mesas to mountain flanks to mountain tops.

 Redondo Peak viewed from the turn-out just south of the Fenton Hill site.

 The altitude of the town of Los Alamos is 7300 feet above sea level. The main LANL tech areas range in elevation from 6500 feet to 8000 feet. Fenton Hill is at 8700 feet. Because of the high altitude, ultraviolet light from the sun is intense and can cause severe sunburn. Temperatures during the day can reach the low 90s in Los Alamos and the main Lab sites, but only the low 80s at the higher elevations. At night the temperatures will range from the 40s to the 70s. June tends to be dry, but July begins the thunderstorm season.

  7. ITINERARY

 Day l, Sunday, June 16: Pick up students at the Albuquerque Airport. Lunch in Old Town. Drive to Los Alamos and settle into accommodations. Get acquainted and establish ground rules.

Day 2, Monday, June 17: Visit LANL's Bradbury Science Museum. Site visit to Fenton Hill, and familiarization with the geography and topography of the Jemez Mountains. Site tour of the MILAGRO project. Possible night-time observing session.

Day 3, Tuesday, June 18: Formal Los Alamos National Laboratory safety training sessions. Classes on introductory astronomy and hands-on CCD camera tutorial at the Canyon school complex. Discussions of automated telescope observing, uses in research and education. Design of our web site and log. Possible night-time observing session.

Day 4, Wednesday, June 19: Classes on astronomical image analysis, and hands-on experience with real data. Possible night-time observing session.

Day 5, Thursday, June 20: Geology tour of the Jemez Mountains; Visit to Santa Fe, the Palace of the Governors Museum, the Santa Fe Plaza, and possibly an Indian Pueblo. Evening visit to the Santa Fe Planetarium.

Day 6, Friday, June 21: Data analysis learning by experience how to find variables and moving objects. Discussion of how to automate. Discussion of alerts, and the generation and responsible communication of alerts. Possible night-time observing session.

Day 7, Saturday, June 22: Afternoon barbecue, with informal discussion of lessons learned so far, and music. Possible night-time observing session.

Day 8, Sunday, June 23: Afternoon field trip to Bandelier National Monument.

Day 9, Monday, June 24: Field trips and site tours of research projects at LANL (e.g., ROTSE and FORTE) and relation of these to the astrophysical transient observatory. Possible night-time observing session.

Day 10, Tuesday, June 25: Field trip to the Very Large Array radio telescope of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, near Socorro, New Mexico. Possible visit to the Magdalena Ridge Observatory site also near Socorro, and overnight campout on the ridge.

Day 11, Wednesday, June 26: Data analysis implementation of transient-finding procedures. Preparation of presentation to LANL astrophysics group. Possible night-time observing session.

Day 12, Thursday, June 27: Preparation of final logs and finishing up the website. Make a presentation to the transient astrophysics interest Group at LANL. Possible night-time observing session.

Day 13, Friday, June 28: Data analysis implementation of transient finding procedures. Generation of alerts. Possible night-time observing session.

Day 14, Saturday, June 29: Earthwatch/Student Challenge Awards Program Amateur Radio Special Event station at Fenton Hill. Hands-on radio transmitting from the site!

Day 15, Sunday, June 30: Farewell breakfast in Santa Fe. Drop-off at Albuquerque international airport.

 8. DAILY SCHEDULE

 The following is a daily schedule that we may keep. The period of our expedition runs from full moon (which rises at sunset) through new moon (which rises at dawn). Much of our work will be done at night. Astronomers often find it convenient to go to bed when the moon rises because a bright moon spoils the darkness of the night sky. Bad weather also makes astronomers go to bed, but that's harder for us to schedule! Ideally, toward the middle of our expedition, we'll be following a schedule that looks something like this (exclusive of field trips):

1:00 pm Breakfast at the hotel.

2:00 pm Report to Canyon School for lectures, briefings, or planning sessions

4:00 pm Depart for Fenton Hill or other observing site

6:00 pm Picnic dinner at or near site, or dinner at restaurant in La Cueva or Jemez Springs

7:30 pm Fine tuning of observational setup - some evenings we may use this time for hiking

9:00 pm Begin observations (or data analysis and reduction)

12:00 am Night lunch at site

4:00 am End observations (or data analysis and reduction), pack up

6:00 am Back at hotel for sleep and free time

We will have cots available at the observatory site for resting, so we don't get too tired out by this schedule, especially as it may be difficult to adjust at first.

9. ACCOMMODATIONS

The students will spend most nights in the Best Western Hilltop House Hotel, a nicely furnished hotel at the eastern edge of Los Alamos, with views overlooking the Rio Grande Valley and the Sangre de Cristo mountains. This hotel is conveniently located across the street from the students' home-base laboratory at Canyon School, the LANL education and training site.

10. FOOD

 Most meals will be taken at the hotel restaurant or at the LANL cafeterias. Some meals will be taken at restaurants in the Jemez Springs or La Cueva communities, close to our potential field sites. Picnic lunches or dinners will be provided for our evenings at remote sites. On our field trips to Santa Fe, we will eat at a restaurant in Santa Fe.

11. FIELD COMMUNICATIONS

Phone messages can be left with the LANL NIS-2 group office, 505 667-5127, with the Fenton Hill Observatory site office, 505 667-7900, or with the Best Western Hilltop House Hotel, 505 662-2441. The Milagro site on Fenton Hill is 505 665-0703.

Phone numbers for the principal investigators are:

Don Casperson, 505 665-3620 or 505 667-1475, home 505 662-4335

Galen Gisler, 505 667-1375 or 505 667-0400, home 505 672-9578;

Todd Haines, 505 667-3638, home 672-9223.

Mail can be addressed to the students at:

 Earthwatch Students

 Mail Stop D436

 Los Alamos National Laboratory

Los Alamos NM 87545