Current News and Events

Two students graduate today with a B.A. in physics. Caden Brown and Ethan Schmitz, both long involved with various aspects of the observatory, both receive their degrees today, together with 170 other new graduates. The trees are flowering, the sky is deep-blue, and it is a perfectly cool-warm day.

While most of us were entrenched in the one-way street of the semester, a pair of chemistry students cleaned and revived the physics lounge. Connor Kuhn and Sonya McGregor designed and painted the window wall. It really was Connor who secured the funding from the Student Activities Office, drove the project with his energy, and finished it in time for his graduation. I am just incredibly impressed and grateful because this room has been neglected for years in terms of comfort and function.  Also, I am looking forward to having the Kapemni Camp students in June using the room for a project or two. Connor is still undecided whether he'll do a Masters in the Twin Cities, or a PhD in Florida. He is accepted in both programs.

Caden gave me this beautiful solar system, made from semi-precious stones. It will probably find its place of honor in the astronomy lab. He will do a research post-bac year at the Minnesota Institute for Astrophysics, in the Kapemni program. I am so proud of all of these young people, and in particular both, Caden and Connor, for all they have achieved.

Late at night, Elaina Varness and her dad cam to visit the observatory one more time. Clouds moved in but that really didn't matter for the wonderful meandering conversation, that moved from the edges of the visible universe to the jet streams of Jupiter, the Vikings in Greenland, airport security, all the way to filets of fish.  

SB, 5-9-2026

The Chamber of Commerce in Morris MN invited to this special event to visit the observatory and check out what the place could provide for other community members. About 17 visitors came, including Chancellor Rodriguez and people from the Kinship Project, and many others. The meeting was organized by Naomi Skulan and Sue Dieter. The sky cooperated! We could see Venus and Jupiter through the telescope even in the dusky skies. Clouds moved aside a little for this, just to return at dark with a bit of thunder.  I had a chance to talk about the lab activities, the Kapemni program, our summer camp, neutron stars, nuclear pasta, quark nuggets, and the Artemis mission. It really helped that there was pain-au-chocolate and cheesecake bites, as well! This was the third observatory event this week, on an evening of PAL sessions before tests. Lareina came to support, and I am very glad about this. 

SB, 4-17-2026

As part of a campus visit, we welcomed 24 high schoolers and some parents from Hennepin County to the observatory.  Austin, Dillon, and Caden talked with half the group in the lab, while the rest came to the observatory to see the telescope. It was a cloudy day, and unfortunately nothing could be seen but that did not diminish the spirit of the group. Addy Lutchen form Admissions had reached out to ask about this possibility, and I think it turned out memorably for all involved. It helps that the Artemis 2 astronauts had safely returned to Earth , and the spirit of this successful mission had buoyed everybody's minds.

SB, 4-14-2026

We welcomed a special visitor to our campus. Professor Van Romero is a physics professor and the vice president of research and economic development at New Mexico Tech. He was visiting our campus as Kapemni Speaker for the spring semester, as well as our partner in organizing the Kapemni Astrophysics Summer camps for high schoolers this year. New Mexico Tech in Socorro, NM, is home to some very important large-scale astronomical observatories, including the VLA. Currently, Dr Romero is part of a research group to build an optical interferometer, consisting of ten optical telescope in a Y formation. The physical principles are similar to the VLA, however, the resolution will be incredibly much larger! I really enjoyed learning about the technical solutions to adjust the path length differences between the various optical data streams in order to construct the image. One of the unique applications will be the tracking of satellites in geostationary orbit. The magnitude of this lies around order 14 or 15, and they are moving. a single telescope would not be able to resolve these in short exposures.

Several events were of interest to a wide audience:

Wednesday, March 25

3:30 p.m. - 4:30 pm Reception with Division faculty and Students in Sci2555, refreshments served

5:00- 6:30 pm dinner at the Old Number One with faculty and students

7 p.m. Science Auditorium:  Discover the Mysteries of Chaco Canyon, a public lecture by Van Romero

followed by refreshments and an open observatory on the 4th floor of the Science Building

The presentation on Chaco Canyon resonated with so many in the audience. Even days later, I had comments from students and faculty in the hallway on how much they enjoyed the lecture.

One fun fact is that Dr. Romero actually served as a science adviser for the TV show Mythbusters. He appears in about eight of the episodes. I am very glad he found the time to visit in Morris again, on a trip that also takes him to St Thomas University in St Paul and to the Twin Cities campus of the University of Minnesota.

SB, March 25, 2026

The Morris Area Elementary School has a Thursday segment in which community members are invited to read to elementary school students. So it came to pass that I was invited by the school librarian, Lori Kurpiers,  to talk about something space-related.  I decided to focus on the fact that the first crewed mission to the Moon in over 50 years is scheduled to launch this year. Currently, April 1 is being targeted, but this may depend on many technical factors. The fifth-graders, on the floor in front of me, knew all about Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong, some also about Michael Collins who remained in lunar orbit, back in July of 1969. A globe helped us to understand where astronauts actually travel. Most of the 700 people who traveled to space remained in low-earth orbit. That would be within a 1-cm layer of a regular-sized globe. Yes - being an astronaut in general means you really still stick very close to home. The Apollo 17 mission in 1972 was the last time any human had left low-earth orbit. One of the kids even knew the correct distance to the Moon: 286 000 miles or 380 000 km. That's a distance of 10 meters - the kid with the moon had to back up out of the pod into the path between the wardrobes to find out how far that is. I read a section from a book. Peter Bremer from the Briggs Library helped me find a good age-appropriate book of about the first moon landing, with a good description of final landing that needed manual controls for the Eagle to not end up in a precarious place. In any case, I hope the kids got something out of this. They were engaged, and interested. On my way into school, I met a colleague on her way into the library to speak about science books, and I was very glad that these kids get to see so many women scientists in one day.

I invited them to the open observatory night next week, and hopefully some will have an opportunity to come!

SB, 2-26-2026

Originally, the date was advertised as Senior Night in the observatory. But, seen from Monday, the forecast called for clouds and snow, and so we moved the open house to Tuesday instead of Wednesday. Alas, the Wendesday skies were clear, the temperatures above freezing, and people came to the observatory even though it was planned now as a practice night for the observatory squad. We had another 10 visitors, and saw a lot of the Orion nebula and Jupiter. Notably, Elaina earned her Observer badge, and is now able to run the observatory for a visual observing.

SB, 2-11-2026

The first Open House was very small with only about 10 visitors. Originally planned for Wednesday, and based on the weather information available, a quick decision was made to hold it one day early. The skies cleared really nicely by evening, with a wintersky filled with Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Mercury (before 7 pm). 

We had great views of the gas giants. We might have seen Neptune. Andromeda Galaxy was viewed, as well as the Pleiades. My personal favorite was the Orion Nebula. With the 32-mm Televue eye piece, the complete large nebula fits into the field of view, and it is a sight to behold. The region is powered by four very young, hot stars in a trapeze arrangement, exciting the surrounding hydrogen gas into a bright glow, permeated by lumps of dark dust clouds.  

It was still quite cold with about 28 degrees in the dome, and the SCT struggled a little bit. Tea was nice a little later, to warm up the body. The observatory squad will meet again on Wednesday (2-11) night to practice setting up and taking down the telescope. If visitors will join, since that time had been advertised as Senior Night, so be it, and we will welcome them.

SBoyd, 2-10-2026