Viewing of the Stars to Feature Ring Nebula

The Ring Nebula, M57, will be the star attraction at a free, public viewing with Westmont’s powerful Keck Telescope Friday, Sept. 21. The monthly viewing, held in conjunction with the Santa Barbara Astronomical Unit, begins after 7:45 p.m. and lasts several hours. The best viewing generally occurs later in the evening. In case of inclement or overcast weather, please call the Telescope Viewing Hotline at (805) 565-6272 and check the Westmont website to see if the viewing has been canceled.

The colorful Ring Nebula in Lyra, the harp, is the atmospheric remnants of a white dwarf star. “Although we won’t be able to see the white dwarf since it is so faint, we will be able to see the wonderful blues and greens of its atmosphere being sloughed off into space,” says Thomas Whittemore, Westmont physics instructor.

Whittemore also hopes to focus on the Great Globular Cluster, M13, in Hercules, the strongman. “This ball of twinklers, estimated to contain upwards of a million ancient stars, is a wonderful late-summer treat,” he says. “If the seeing is particularly good this evening, we may be able to get a glimpse of a distant galaxy, NGC 6207, which lies in the same field as M13. This galaxy’s light will have traveled 30 million years to reach to their eyes.”

The viewing may also feature open cluster M29. “This little teapot of stars may remind viewers of the Pleiades, the Seven Sisters, but it lies much further away from us compared to the Pleiades,” Whittemore says. “Estimates range from 6,000 to 7,200 light-years due to uncertainties from the nebulosity obscuring the cluster. At any rate, the cluster’s light has been traveling to us from a time before the pyramids were built.”

The Keck Telescope is housed in the observatory between Russell Carr Field and the track and field/soccer complex. Free parking is available near the baseball field. Here is a pdf of the campus map.