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The new Morris students in the Gateway program come to Morris for the summer before college to prepare for the challenges of college life. Many of the students in the program are Native American students. The NSF-funded Kapemni program sponsored a trip for the Gateway students  from Morris to the  Minnesota Science Museum in the Twin Cities. Professor emeritus Jim Rock, University of Minnesota Duluth, guided a planetarium show, a lunch-and-learn event, and a tour through the Maya and "We Stay and We Go" exhibit in the Science Museum. We also visited Mounds Park in St. Paul and learned about the significance of the mounds for astronomical observations. Dinner in the Space Aliens Grill was a fitting closure on the day. 

This event had many organizers and supporters: 

• the Morris Gateway and Stellar leaders, Clement Loo, Jasmine Grey, and Liz Johnson

• The Kapemni program

• Jim Rock, Dakota astronomer and main leader of the day's events

• the Science Museum of Minnesota

• Vuk Mandic and Sylke Boyd, as the faculty organizers

We also welcomed a special guest: Joel Weisberg, professor emeritus from Carleton College, and one of the fathers of LIGO. Photos from the day can be found below.

The Kapemni program is an NSF-funded program that arises from a collaboration to encourage the participation of Native American Students in Astrophysics, established between faculty at the Minnesota Institute for Astrophysics (MIfA) on the Twin Cities campus, and faculty in the physics and computer science disciplines at Morris. The name of the program, Kapemni, is the Dakota word for "to twist", and is used for the point on the teepee where the poles are connected. The Kapemni symbol connects the earth and sky teepees at the apex - "As above so below". A Kapemni is foremost a symbol of connection of different worlds, perhaps sky and earth, or spirit and real world, or one place and another. A surprising example was found in a pavillion in Mounds Park.

pictures by all, text by SB.

Late at night, a group of 20 Gateway students visited the Morris telescope to look at the moon.  This marked the first outreach activity for our little summer telescope group. Outside observation was overruled due to mosquitoes. We replaced it with some activities in the lab: making moon craters, and learning about the lunar orbit.

Many great questions were asked, about the origin of the moon, the appearance of lunar maria versus cratered regions, the role of the moon for living systems, and much more. Craters appear mostly circular - why? As one of the visitors put it: It's just like the ring-waves on water around an impact- they are circles no matter the impact angle. I can tell it will be a good year.

The pictures shown here were taken by Kari Adams. Text by SB.

Thanks to Sue Dieter and Kari Adams, a very nice article about our work was published here. This article was also published by the University of Minnesota Foundation. 

For two months in summer 2024, a team of four people worked on the observatory with the goals of

1. Repairing the telescope which had suffered from problems in its Right-Ascension gear box.

2. Building competency in using the telescope in outreach and research, and creating documentation in its safe use

3. Installing a new CMOS camera and filter wheel, including guider camera, for astrophotography and research.

This group consisted of physics students Ethan Schmitz and Joseph Erdrich, both going into their junior year in fall 24, and professors Sylke Boyd (Phys) and Peter Dolan (CSci). 

This work was supported by the Kapemni Program, the Morris Academic Partnership, the Science and Math Alumni Fund, and the Physics Discipline.

The Kapemni program provides support for the telescope, the students, and mentors. The observatory had not been used since the retirement of professor Gordon McIntosh in 2019.  Even before that, it exhibited problems related to slipping gears, limiting the usability of the instrument.  However, we saw the observatory as instrumental for our goal to provide a pathway for students toward astrophysics. Under advice from Pat Kelly and others, a CMOS camera with filter wheel, adapter, guidance camera, and filter sets was acquired.  None of the people working on this during the summer had any experience in observational astronomy, yet we succeeded in all of the above goals. There is much more work to do in image processing, and testing out the best settings for the camera in different environments. We also have a solar filter for the telescope for sun observations. The remote control of dome and telescope is one of the nearer goals. Many of these tasks will be student projects in the near future. 

For the two students, this experience provided many challenges, and much opportunity for growth and discovery. Ethan has become a camera expert. Joseph has developed skills in controlling the telescope and aligning with target objects for observing nights. Both have gained confidence, skill, patience, and respect for the instrument. 

The pictures below highlight some of the more technical work on the telescope during that time.

Two exciting back-to-back events took place on Wednesday at the University of Minnesota Morris, November 8, 2023. The events were sponsored by the Kapemni program, a collaboration between the Minnesota Institute for Astrophysics and the Morris physics discipline. Vuk Mandic, our speaker later in the evening, is the leader of this program.

4:30 – 6:30 pm

Dakota and other Indigenous Sky-Earth Kapemni and Eclipse Relationships

Story-telling and workshop

by Jim Rock, Dakota, Professor emeritus in astronomy, University of Minnesota Duluth

Science Atrium and Sci2190

7:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

Observing the Universe with Gravitational Waves

Public Lecture 

Vuk Mandic, Knight Professor in astrophysics, University of Minnesota Twin Cities

Lindsay Glesener and Vuk Mandic came out to Morris to visit with students and faculty in the Division for Science and Mathematics.  Both organized events were well-attended. There also was time for breakfast at Don's Cafe.

Images/text SB