Star search: Dyer Observatory
attracts astronomers from Californa to Kentucky
by Jamie Lawson Reeves
While many of the tourists in Nashville last week for Fan Fair were looking
for country music stars, some scholarly visitors were looking to the heavens.
The Arthur J. Dyer Observatory at Vanderbilt, directed by Professor of
Astronomy Douglas S. Hall, hosted an Astronomy Summer School June 14-June
20. More than 30 amateur astronomers and high school and college science
teachers from Kentucky to California traveled to Nashville to attend the
unique school which focused on photometry - measuring the brightness of
stars - which is fundamental to astronomy.
"Probably the most interesting thing about photometry is that you
identify variable stars, those weird stars that vary in brightness,"
says Hall. Variable star research is the area of expertise for most of Vanderbilt's
astronomers, says Hall, who is also founder and president of International
Amateur-Professional Photoelectric Photometry (IAPPP).
"IAPPP was founded in 1980 with the goal of getting professional astronomers
to help amateurs worldwide learn how to do photoelectric photometry at the
same high level of scientific accuracy," says Hall, who taught courses
during the summer school. Bill Rodriguez, a science teacher at the University
School and a fellow member of IAPPP, also taught classes.
The summer school was immediately followed by the second annual IAPPP Symposium
at Dyer Observatory June 21-22. More than 30 researchers attended this event.
For more information about Vanderbilt's Dyer Observatory or IAPPP, call
Hall at 373-4897. The observatory, located at the end of Oman Drive off
Granny White Pike, is open to the public one night a month for public viewing.
In addition to stargazing, these sessions include illustrated lectures by
Vanderbilt astronomers and astrophysicists.
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Document Created July 9, 1997
by Billy Kingsley