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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Measurement of solar wind electron density and temperature in the shocked region of Venus and the density and temperature of photoelectrons within the ionosphere of Venus
Abstract: Presented herein are measurements of the solar wind electron number density and temperature near and within the bow shock of Venus. The measurements were made by the Pioneer Venus mission Orbiter Retarding Potential Analyzer operating in its suprathermal electron mode. The measurements are essentially point measurements. The spacecraft travels approximately 0.8 km during the 0.1 s time interval required to record a single I-V curve. The dual measurement of a density and temperature is obtained from one sweep by least squares fitting a mathematical Maxwellian expression to the I-V curve. The distance between successive measurements is approximately 100 km. In many orbits, when the spacecraft is crossing or traveling within the bow shock, the derived densities and temperatures (high density, high temperature (HDHT)) are large, densities of the order of 100 cm−3 and temperatures of the order of several hundred eV. We interpret these HDHT measurements as measurements in regions where the large, directed kinetic energy of the solar wind ions is being degraded into randomized, more thermal-like energy distributions of the electrons and ions through wave-particle interactions. The HDHT values define the electron energy distribution in the limited energy interval 0 to 50 eV. We assume that the underlying electron flux distributions are flat topped like those measured in the Earth's bow shock. We also report densities and temperatures of EUV produced photoelectron energy distributions measured within the ionosphere.
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Anomalous Currents Associated with Euler Potential and Hybrid Models of Jupiter's Magnetosphere
Abstract:
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Predictions of the Magnetic Field of Jupiter Along Several Representative Orbits of the Galileo Spacecraft Based Upon Model Fits Derived From Pioneer and Ulysses Magnetic Field Data
By D. E. Jones (et al.)
Abstract:
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Distant (200-238 re) magnetotail lobe characteristics during quiet solar-wind conditions
By Douglas E. Jones (et al.)
Abstract: The distant (X = 200–238 Re) tail lobe average properties under quiet solar wind conditions have been determined using simultaneous ISEE-3 magnetic field and IMP-8 magnetic field and plasma observations. Under external solar wind pressuresof Pext = B2/8π+Nk(Te+Ti) ⩽5×10−10 dynes cm−2, an average tail lobe field strength of 7.1±1.2 nT and average plasma beta (8πnKT/B2) of 0.3 are determined. It is concluded that under quiet solar wind conditions, the distant tail lobes are typically dominated by the magnetic field pressure.
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Statistical properties of magnetic-field fluctuations in the distant plasmasheet
By Douglas E. Jones (et al.)
Abstract: Short (<1 min) and long time (> 5 min) variations of the plasmasheet magnetic field have been examined during all intervals when ISEE-3 was at distances x < −200 Re. It is determined that short period magnetic turbulence increases by a factor of ∼3 with increasing geomagnetic activity, as indicated by AE. In contrast, long period field variations with North-then-South signatures at plasmasheet entry occur ∼2.5 times more frequently than South-then-North signatures. This result, combined with other previous ISEE-3 results, is in agreement with the interpretation that the North-South plasmasheet features are plasmoids propagating tailward. However, a statistical examination of the geomagnetic activity relationship indicates that there does not appear to be any substorm dependence on these North-South events.
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A review of the isee-3 geotail magnetic-field results
By D. E. Jones (et al.)
Abstract: This review presents a summary of past work on the ISEE-3 distant tail magnetic field observations. An attempt has been made to bring the many results together as a coherent whole, in the hope that the reader can envision the direction of future research necessary to achieve an understanding of the dynamics of the magnetotail from 60 to 240 Re and perhaps beyond.