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Sonoma State University
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Observatory Report 1997-98
This report, the Department's twenty-second, covers the period September 1997 through August 1998. More up-to-date information may be found at www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu.
1. PERSONNEL
The faculty consisted of professors Lynn R. Cominsky, John R. Dunning, Samuel L. Greene, Duncan E. Poland (Chair), Saeid Rahimi, Gordon G. Spear (Observatory Director), and Joseph S. Tenn. Spear remained on leave to SSU’s Information Technology department, Greene began his retirement, teaching only in the fall semester, and Cominsky was on a year-long Sabbatical.2. INSTRUCTION
A total of 457 students took Descriptive Astronomy, Introductory Observational Astronomy, Extraterrestrial Intelligence and Interstellar Travel, Frontiers in Astronomy, Cosmology, and Special Studies. The Department awarded 1 B.A. degree and 2 B.S. degrees. (All degrees are in physics.) There were 28 physics majors in Spring 1998.3. EQUIPMENT
Optical telescopes are mounted in a sliding-roof observatory on campus. Auxiliary instrumentation for the 0.36-m Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope includes a CCD camera, an f/10 guide scope, a 0.2-m f/3 Baker-Schmidt camera, wide field cameras, a slitless prism spectrograph, a dispersion grating spectrograph with a Hg-Ne comparison source, and a 0.5 Å H
filter.
The Epoch Instruments 0.25-m f/5 Newtonian telescope is
computer-controlled. The system points reliably to within
1-2 arcminutes on the sky. When used with the AstroLink
CCD camera, the resulting images have a 20 arcminute field
of view and a 2 arcsecond/pixel image scale. Reliable photometry
is feasible for objects as faint as 16th magnitude.
4. RESEARCH
Cominsky continued collaborating with the Particle Astrophysics Group at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center on projects involving X-rays and high-energy gamma-rays. She is working on science simulations for the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) mission, and chairs the GLAST Public Affairs Working group. SSU student Tim Graves has been assisting with the development of a new outreach-oriented web site for GLAST, and in the simulations. Cominsky also continued analyzing data from the X-ray source 4U1907+09 with SSU graduate Mallory Roberts, now a Stanford University graduate student. Work was completed on the apastron data from PSR 1259-63, which was observed with ASCA and OSSE. A paper has been submitted to the Astrophysical Journal. In August 1998, she gave two invited lectures entitled “X-ray Emission from Compact Sources” in the 26th Stanford Summer Institute on Particle Physics, “Gravity, from the Hubble Length to the Planck Length.”5. MISCELLANEOUS
The optical observatory was used 9 times for public viewing nights and classes. There were ~200 visitors. The Department presented its “What Physicists Do” public lecture series, under Tenn’s direction, for the 54th and 55th semesters. Visiting speakers on astronomical topics were Scott Sandford (NASA Ames Research Center), Arthur B. C. Walker II (Stanford U), Mark Adler (JPL), Alan Dressler (Carnegie Institution of Washington), Janna Levin (UC Berkeley), and Michael Bolte (UC Santa Cruz).Cominsky continued as Press Officer for the High Energy Astrophysics Division (HEAD) of the AAS. She organized two press conferences at the November, 1997 HEAD meeting in Estes Park, Colorado. These conferences highlighted reports of a diffuse glow of GeV radiation around our Galaxy (detected with CGRO-EGRET), and evidence for relativistic “frame-dragging” in neutron star and black hole accreting binaries (from the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer). Coverage of both stories was extensive, with front page articles in the Los Angeles Times, articles in many other dailies and magazines, many radio interviews and even a short feature on CNN. In January 1998, Cominsky was appointed as one of two new Deputy Press Officers for the AAS. At the 191st meeting of the society, she assisted AAS Press Officer Steve Maran and also appeared on NPR’s “Science Friday” discussing the highlights of the meeting. She acted as AAS Press Officer in March 1998, while Maran was away observing the total solar eclipse.
Tenn continued as chair of the history committee of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. He arranged history sessions devoted to astronomy in New Mexico and to cosmology 1948-98 for the ASP annual meeting, held in Albuquerque in June. He continues to maintain and add to the Bruce Medalists website.
PUBLICATIONS
Kuulkers, E., Parmar, A. N., Kitamoto, S., Cominsky, L. R., and Sood, R. K., 1997, “Complex Outburst Behaviour from the Black Hole Candidate 4U 1630-47,” MNRAS, 291,81.