At the Edge of NGC 891

BYU Astronomy Research Group Joins the Astrophysical Research Consortium (ARC)

As of January 2021 BYU will be a member of the ARC Consortium (Link to Consortium) with access to the ARC 3.5-m telescope and the 0.5-m ARCSAT telescope.  The primary use of the ARC 3.5-m telescope time is for graduate student projects.  This provides a wide array of instrumentation that is currently being used to study objects in the solar system all the way to studies of the large scale structure of the Universe.

Other BYU Astronomy Facilities

In addition to our telescope time from the ARC consortium, we operate a number of our own astronomical facilities

West Mountain Observatory (West Mountain)

This is our mountain observatory at about 6600 ft above sea level.  This consists of three telescopes: 0.9-m, 0.5-m, and a 0.32-m. It is a 40 minute drive that ends in a 5 miles drive up a dirt road. The mountain itself can be seen from campus. We don't provide any tours of this facility.

Orson Pratt Observatory

The Orson Pratt Observatory is named for an early apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  It is our campus telescope facility and contains a wide variety of telescopes for student research and public outreach. We operate a 24" PlaneWave telescope in the main campus dome, plus a 16", two 12", one 8", and a 6" telescope on our observation deck.  The telescopes are all fully robotic. Beyond this we have a large sections of telescopes used on public nights.

Royden G. Derrick Planetarium (Planetarium)

This is a 119 seat, 39" dome planetarium with acoustically treated walls to allow it's use as a lecture room. Recently we upgraded to an E&S Digistar7 operating system with 4K projectors.  The planetarium is used for teaching classes, public outreach, and astronomy education research projects.





Selected Publications

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A comparison of the photospheric and interplanetary magnetic fields during the flight of Mariner IV
BYU Authors: Jae R. Balliff and Douglas E. Jones, published in Solar Phys.
The polarity of the interplanetary magnetic field observed by the Mariner IV spacecraft is compared to the polarity of the photospheric magnetic field observed with the solar magnetograph at Mt. Wilson Observatory. Unlike the results obtained from observations during the flight of IMP-I, these polarities are not well correlated when the photospheric polarity is determined from data along a narrow latitudinal strip. It is suggested that the structure of the interplanetary field is often related to major features in the photospheric field that are observed over a broad range of solar latitudes.
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Further evidence on the correlation between transverse fluctuations in the interplanetary magnetic field and Kp
BYU Authors: Jae R. Ballif and D. E. Jones, published in J. Geophys. Res.
The correlations between the Kp index and solar wind variables measured during the flights of Mariners 2, 4, and 5 are discussed. It is shown that during the time of these flights, Kp is highly correlated with σBT, N, a measure of the interplanetary magnetic field fluctuations. It is better correlated with this quantity than it is with either the interplanetary magnetic field strength or the plasma speed. Kp is given by the relation The typical, large-scale structure of events in the solar wind that occur in conjunction with major geomagnetic activity is also discussed.
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Conceptual Physics: Matter in Motion
BYU Authors: Jae R. Ballif and W. E. Dibble, published in John Wiley and Sons, Inc., First Edition, (1969)
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The magnetic morphology of solar streams and its relation to geomagnetic storms
BYU Authors: Jae R. Ballif and D. E. Jones, published in J. Geophys. Res.
Based on the results obtained from the Mariner 4 magnetometer experiment, a model of the magnetic properties of solar streams is presented. A model of geomagnetic variability described in terms of the Kp index that corresponds to the passage of the earth through such a solar stream is also presented. The most significant magnetic characteristic of simple streams is that they can be described in terms of a core of high, uniform field surrounded by an asymmetric region of fluctuating fields. Geomagnetic variability occurs when the earth is in the disordered field region. Therefore, when the earth passes through the uniform field in the core of a stream there is a temporary lull in the geomagnetic storminess observed at the earth. Many of the observed solar-geomagnetic correlations are reviewed and are found to relate well to the proposed model.
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Transverse fluctuations in the interplanetary magnetic field: A requisite for geomagnetic variability
BYU Authors: Jae R. Ballif and D. E. Jones, published in J. Geophys. Res.
For the first few months of the Mariner 4 flight, the probe-sun-earth angle remained small. The magnetometer data obtained during this time are analyzed to determine the relationship between properties of the interplanetary field and geomagnetic variability. It is shown that, although there is a good correlation between geomagnetic variability and the interplanetary field magnitude, there is still higher correlation between geomagnetic variability and fluctuations of the interplanetary field in the plane normal to the earth-sun line. The nature of these fluctuations is illustrated for the two sudden commencement events that occurred during the period.
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The Sodium Nightglow
BYU Authors: Jae R. Ballif, published in J. Atmos. Sci.
The chemiluminescent reaction responsible for the nightglow in the sodium D lines is embedded in the complex kinetics of an oxygen-hydrogen atmosphere. Various possibilities of identifying this reaction from observational studies are considered. It is suggested that an important clue may be found in the time-variations of the height-integrated glow-intensity.