The Washburn Observer

Volume 1, No. 2 • Fall 2011 • www.astro.wisc.edu

SALT Commissioning Produces Unique Proposals, Experiences

Inside This Issue The Proposals in star formation and black hole activity triggered by a merger between two Letter from the Chair 2 W astronomy people are really excited about galaxies. “SALT’s Fabry-Perot capability Please Keep in Touch 2 Uusing the South African Large Telescope enables us to observe a spectral line at Kelley Hess Balances (SALT)—so much so that they’ve asked for more each position of the extended ionized Science and Sports 3 observation time in the coming semester than the gas cloud across a wide field of view,” 135 hours that are available for UW-Madison. says Corey. Universe in the Park 4 Fifteen proposals were accepted to use the UW John Chisholm, a second-year Department Welcomes time. Astronomy graduate students are especially graduate student, proposes to use RSS First Grainger Fellow 5 excited about the telescope’s new capabilities. to observe an extremely unusual galaxy News Notes 5 Third-year graduate student Greg Mosby culled from a survey of several hundred is enthusiastic about using the new Robert thousand distant galaxies. The galaxy Stephan Jansen Retires 6 Stobie Spectrograph (RSS) to better understand is remarkable because of the strong and Jack Honor Finds Perfect Fit 7 how massive galaxies are influenced by the broad lines of highly ionized oxygen supermassive black holes lurking at their centers. and neon in its spectrum, indicating Board of Visitors 7 This fall, he is undertaking a pilot study focused very energetic processes in the galaxy. on three powerful quasars, powered by black “SALT’s superior collecting area and holes, that are actively feeding on gas and advanced spectrograph enable an shining brightly. Greg will take advantage of extremely deep, high quality spectrum RSS’s impressive of this faint galaxy to be taken in a short sensitivity to probe amount of time,” says John. the faint outskirts A list of accepted SALT proposal of the quasar host titles and descriptions will be posted galaxies that are less at www.astro.wisc.edu. (Click on Our affected by the glare Science, Research Observatories, South from the quasars. African Large Telescope.) He aims to test a popular theory that “It was cowboy astronomy. We’d mergers between galaxies trigger both come up with simple solutions black hole activity and hope they’d work.” and bursts of star — Eric Hooper formation. “It’s All hands were on deck and all eyes on the RSS as it was being lifted up onto the telescope. Inset photo: “Second light” image of Omega Centauri exciting to start my The Experiences National Science Foundation Fellowship work on a telescope that’s so important to our department,” stronomy Department scientists says Greg. AEric Hooper, Ken Nordsieck and Fourth year graduate student Corey Wood’s proposal takes advantage of a Marsha Wolf have returned from South novel mode of RSS called a Fabry-Perot. It will enable him to map the structure and Africa, where they were placing the new velocity of highly ionized oxygen gas surrounding five quasars. This gas is believed Robert Stobie Spectrograph back on the to have been violently expelled from the quasar host galaxy by an abrupt increase Continued on page 3 The Washburn Observer

Letter from the Chair

into an integral and invaluable part of finished that sentence, one of our finish- our department community. ing graduate students emailed me ask- Working with the Board and our ing for Jere Fluno’s address so she could alumni more broadly is one of the most write to him about her job outcome.) enjoyable facets of my professional life. As I begin my final year as chair, The diversity of fascinating and delight- I want to also express my personal ful people is a rich pleasure. The shared thanks. Our alumni allow me the plea- dedication to the vitality and success of sure of being able to say “yes:” To the the department is an inspiration. And undergraduate last fall who asked if he the unexpected adventures are a blast! could go to the American Astronomi- How else would we have seen a Shuttle cal Society to present his research at launch from the VIP area? (Dave Radza- Green Bank. To the graduate students nowski, the current NASA chief of staff, who had an idea of their own that they is a department alumnus.) wanted to try out with “grad queue” Bob Mathieu, Astronomy Department chair The ways that our alumni and observing time on WIYN and asked if Board members give of themselves for we could support their travel. To Matt second newsletter is always an the department are wonderfully varied. Bershady and Jay Gallagher, who asked A auspicious moment. While the first Some contribute their time and wisdom to purchase narrow-band filters for their usually gets the most notice and celebra- to guiding the department, including research using the infrared camera on tion, it is the second that suggests the designing the new website! Others bring WIYN. To Eric Hooper, who asked if he possibility of a long future. their telescopes to Universe in the Park could travel to Bombay to build a col- In this issue, we take a moment events. Some contribute to our historical laboration with our SALT partner. And to introduce you to the Department of archives. And so often I receive notes finally, to the long-forgotten but wise Astronomy Board of Visitors. It was from the UW Foundation about financial student who asked if the students could John Wiley who advised us early in the gifts from alumni, many of whom I did buy pizza each week to attract the senior last decade to form such a Board. To not know before, and some of whom graduate students to Journal Club! be honest, our initial reaction was a bit were here before I came to . quizzical…or, as my daughter would say, Each gift is special to us, and together clueless. Fortunately, John had the wis- they make a world of difference. We are dom to ask David Beckwith if he would deeply grateful to all those who help us be willing to form the Board and help teach our students, nurture our young guide our first steps together. Dave, then researchers, and advance Wisconsin Russ Christesen and Don Procknow, and discoveries. Bob Mathieu now Jere Fluno have nurtured the Board (I am not making this up–just as I Astronomy Department chair

The Washburn Observer is the alumni Please Keep in Touch If you wish to make a -deductible gift newsletter of the Department of Astronomy to the Department of Astronomy fund, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. which allows the department to support 475 N. Charter St. • Madison, WI 53706 We’d like to hear from you. Please special opportunities for students, staff Email: [email protected] send any news we can include in and faculty, you may contribute online at www.astro.wisc.edu (click on Friends Website: www.astro.wisc.edu future newsletters or any changes & Alumni, Make a Gift) or send a check, Chair of the Department of Astronomy: in your contact information to: Professor Robert Mathieu payable to the UW Foundation, to: UW [email protected] or UW- Foundation, US Bank Lockbox 78807, Editor: Barbara Sanford Madison Department of Astronomy, Milwaukee, WI 53278-0807. Questions may Contact for gifts information: 475 N. Charter St., Madison, WI be directed to Department of Astronomy Robert Mathieu Chair Bob Mathieu, [email protected]. [email protected] • (608) 262-8689 53706, Attn: Barb Sanford. edu, (608) 262-8689 or UW Foundation Christopher Glueck, UW Foundation Director of Development Chris Glueck, [email protected] • (608) 265-9952 Facebook: UW Madison [email protected], Astronomy Department Design: Wisconsin Alumni Association Twitter: @uwastro (608) 265-9952.

2 “SALT” continued on from page 1

Kelley Hess Balances Science and Sports Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) and commissioning the instrument this past “Astronomers think that galaxies (northern) spring. Here they share some of spend most of their lifetime in the their experiences. group environment and that that is Ken Nordsieck spent more than three where they undergo most of their months at the SALT site, preparing the evolution,” she says. “But these groups instrument to be put on the telescope. are hard structures to identify. This “Lifting the instrument on April 9 was a is the first dedicated study from the spectacular milestone,” he says. Within two perspective of their gas content to also days, they had a second light image of the examine the surrounding large scale biggest globular cluster in the Milky Way. environment.” “Within a week, a rare stellar explosion of T Pyxidis occurred, its first outburst “Cycling and running are since 1967. It was an ‘commissioning lamp.’ This convinced me that I have the Kelley Hess (center) gives her all for the UW Cycling Club team. what I do so that I can come back to astronomy each day right religion,” says Ken. He got very little sleep working on the telescope and then the stronomy Department graduate feeling refreshed and excited instrument. On a regular basis, he stayed Astudent Kelley Hess is perhaps to discover something new.” up all night and then worked with the day most famous in the department for — Kelley Hess crews. “But it was all worth it,” he says. winning the Mad City Marathon in “It’s fun to get complex, unique modes 2006. Last year, she placed seventh in For the past three years, Hess working.” her age group in the Ironman triathlon. has received the Wisconsin Space On his first trip, Eric Hooper was “Cycling and running are what Grant Fellowship. UW-Madison also supposed to commission the multi-object I do so that I can come back to awarded her a Vilas travel grant for spectroscopy mode (MOS) of RSS but never astronomy each day feeling refreshed domestic and international travel. got to do it because, just after lifting the and excited to discover something She’s done public lectures at Space instrument, he was enlisted to test and new,” says Hess. “It’s important to me Place and guest lectures for the calibrate other instrument modes. When to have mental and physical balance.” introductory astronomy classes. he returned to South Africa in August, he Hess was a runner and soccer “I had a passion for astronomy in worked on the multi-object mode, helping player before she started biking during junior high and high school but didn’t to bring it from a barely functional state to her second year of graduate school. think people could do it as a career nearly ready for full-scale operation. “It was She rides for the UW Cycling Club and make a living at it,” says Hess. “I cowboy astronomy. We’d come up with team during the collegiate school year started out in chemistry and took a simple solutions and hope they’d work,” and also for Team Kenda presented basic introduction to astronomy class. says Eric. “It was nonstop, with no breaks. by Geargrinder. At the highest level, Jim Bell, the principal investigator on I worked my tail off but had a blast because the UW team qualified for Nationals, the camera for the Mars Rover, was in of the people I worked with. It was fun which were hosted in Madison this my class, and I got to meet Bill Nye, being at the site.” year. the Science Guy.” Hess learned about Marsha Wolf’s primary involvement Hess’s academic work is also the research side of astronomy and was commissioning the Fabry-Perot impressive. She graduated this discovered that people could actually mode of the RSS. She worked with Ted summer and moved to Cape Town, make a living at it. She participated Williams of Rutgers University, the project South Africa, where she is doing a in the Research Experiences for scientist for this capability, in preparation postdoc at the University of Cape Undergraduates (REU) program. for building a similar mode into a new Town. Her research is in galaxy As a senior in 2004, she spent the near infrared instrument for SALT being evolution. She is a member of the summer at the Very Large Array radio built at UW. They worked through a lot ALFALFA Consortium and worked on observatory in Socorro, New Mexico. of bugs and saw a lot of . “It was the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA Survey, “It was one of the best summers challenging to get the different software which she used to study the evolution of my life, and I decided to go into and computer systems to work together. in the gas content of galaxies as a astronomy,” she says. Commissioning is hard work, but very function of the environment in which rewarding when everything finally works,” they live. says Marsha. “It was pretty cool to see the different parts of a galaxy light up as we stepped through the wavelengths.”

3 The Washburn Observer

Universe in the Park Brings Astronomy to Public

t’s not unusual to see groups of up to then an associate scientist at UW’s Space talks are for audiences of all ages so that I100 campers and park visitors gathered Astronomy Laboratory working with the anyone from ages 5 to 99 can understand around a telescope gazing at the night Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo-Polarimeter and enjoy them. sky in Wisconsin state parks on late Experiment (WUPPE) project, and is now The other student sets up a spring, summer and early fall evenings. a distinguished university professor of moderate aperture (8-10 inches) telescope These budding astronomers are astronomy and dean of the College of to observe some easily-accessible participants in Universe in the Park Natural Sciences and Mathematics at the astronomical objects such as the moon, (UitP), a popular outreach program University of Toledo (Ohio). planets, globular clusters, multiple star offered by the Astronomy Department. systems and nearby galaxies following “Based on the simple idea that the best “Universe in the Park is an the talk. If the sky is clear, participants environment in which to introduce the outstanding example of the are given the opportunity to view general public to astronomy is outside Wisconsin Idea at work.” whatever astronomical objects are under dark skies, pairs of UW graduate available through the telescope. The — Eric Wilcots and undergraduate astronomy majors students give detailed explanations of the travel to state parks all around Wisconsin Fifteen years later, the program, objects being observed and encourage every year during the camping season funded by the National Science questions throughout the sessions. They to bring astronomy to the public,” says Foundation and sponsored by the also point out some interesting, easy-to- program director Eric Wilcots, astronomy Astronomy Department and the find constellations, satellite fly-overs professor and associate dean of the Wisconsin Department of Natural and flares. College of Letters and Science. “UitP is Resources, is still incredibly successful. “This two-pronged approach of a an outstanding example of the Wisconsin “In each of the last few years, at least presentation followed by observing not Idea at work.” 50 sessions, spread across most of the only shows participants amazing objects UitP began in 1996 through a state parks in Wisconsin, have been in the sky but also guarantees that they proposal to the NASA IDEAS program. held for groups of up to approximately leave with so much more,” says Sell. The principal investigator on the 100 people,” says astronomy graduate “After all, what better way to bring proposal and originator of the UiTP student and UitP presenter Paul Sell. astronomy to the general public through program was Karen Bjorkman, who was Just after sunset, one student gives an observing session than to go directly a 30-minute to campers who are already outdoors?” presentation—a he asks. broad overview “The UitP program is a natural way of one or two for astronomy to reach the public,” adds astronomy graduate student Blakesley Burkhart. photo by Ralf Kotulla topics— “The dark skies of Wisconsin’s natural with lots of reserves and parks really show the ‘wow’ wonderful factor of astronomy while educating images. people at the same time. I love doing the Presenters will program and traveling around the state.” sometimes UitP gained international recognition discuss recent at the 2010 Communicating Astronomy astronomical with the Public conference in Cape Town, news such as South Africa, where it was showcased the discovery as a model for park public astronomy of new solar outreach. systems, the To find a Universe in the Park demotion of program at a state park near you, view Pluto, and the the schedule at www.astro.wisc.edu. latest results (Click on The Public, Universe in the from the Park.) The site also includes links to other Grad student Paul Sell points out constellations to Perrot State Park visitors, who Hubble Space astronomy topics and information about are enjoying the clear night and an impressive telescopic view of the Great Globular Telescope. The the current night sky. Cluster in Hercules.

4 Department News Notes

Welcomes First Congratulations, Graduates! Welcome, Grad Students Grainger Fellow Undergraduates: Rogerio Cardoso The Astronomy Department (pursuing graduate degree in astronomy welcomes the incoming 2011/2012 class at West Virginia University); Thomas of graduate students. his fall, Finzell Hye Seung Lee the (pursuing graduate degree in , BS astronomy/ T Department astronomy at Michigan State University); space science, MS astronomy, Chungnam Victoria Hartwick of Astronomy (working with National University, Daejeon, Republic of welcomes Professors Stanimirovic and Wilcots Korea. Interests: cosmic ray acceleration, Dr. Alyson and applying to graduate schools); magnetic reconnection. Worked with Brooks as its Noah Hurst (pursuing graduate degree Professors Lazarian and Desiati last year first Grainger at Department of Physics, University and went to Germany with Lazarian Post-Doctoral of California-San Diego); Jacob Miller to work with well-known cosmic ray Alyson Brooks Fellow. (pursuing PhD in Physical Sciences, expert Professor Rienhard Schlickeiser on Alyson is a theoretical including physics, chemistry and cosmic ray acceleration by turbulence. astrophysicist whose interests geology, at University of Colorado at Claire Murray, BS physics/ include galaxy formation and Boulder); Daniel Reese (doing one- astronomy, Carleton College, Northfield, evolution, galactic structure, year internship at Harvard Smithsonian MN. Interests: extragalactic astronomy, galactic chemical evolution, Center for Astrophysics); and Justin especially stellar astrophysics and stellar abundances, and Schield. radio astronomy, with specific focus on cosmological N-Body+SPH Graduate Students: Samuel gaseous nebulae studies. Other interests: simulations of galaxies. Her Friedman; Kelley Hess (doing postdoc cluster dynamics, magnetic field theoretical work will enhance at University of Cape Town, South interactions, interstellar medium. the standing of the department Africa); Alex Hill (doing postdoc in radio Benjamin Tofflemire, BS as an international center of astronomy at Commonwealth Scientific astronomy/physics, with minor in research in galaxy evolution. & Industrial Research Organization mathematics, University of Washington. “As an observationally (CSIRO) in Epping, Australia); Ryan Interests: physics of stellar atmospheres, oriented theorist, I’m looking Keenan (on Fulbright Fellowship at flares and magnetic activity. As forward to working with Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory participant in Astrophysics REU program observers in this strong (CTIO) in La Serena, Chile; in spring last summer, did research testing a new observational astronomy 2012 will do postdoc at Academia statistical analysis technique on three- department,” says Alyson. Sinica Institute for Astronomy and dimensional magnetohydrodynamic The Grainger Post-Doctoral Astrophysics, Taipei, Taiwan); and (MHD) simulations in the search Fellowship, the Department Jennifer Stone (doing postdoc at for relationships between density of Astronomy’s first prize Department of Physics, Nagoya distributions, turbulence and magnetic fellowship, is generously funded University, Japan). field strength under Professor Lazarian. by The Grainger Foundation. “I’m excited about winning Awards Heinz, Stanimirovic this fellowship,” she adds. “I Victoria Hartwick and Jake Awarded Tenure love the freedom it gives me to Miller received the Raymond L. The Department of Astronomy is do the type of work that I like.” Doherty Award, given in recognition pleased to announce the promotion In her free time, Alyson of a graduating senior’s exceptional of Sebastian Heinz and Snezana enjoys biking, reading and performance in astronomical research Stanimirovic to associate professors watching movies. She was the and in the classroom as an Astronomy- with tenure. Sherman Fairchild Prize Fellow Physics major. Department Chair Bob Heinz’s research focuses on the in Theoretical Astrophysics Mathieu presented the awards at the astrophysics of black holes and their at the California Institute of Physics Banquet & Awards Ceremony influence on the formation of structure Technology, and received her held at the Fluno Center April 29. in the universe. His passion for PhD and MS in astronomy from Graduate student Chris Bard teaching goes beyond the classroom. He the University of Washington. has been awarded a NASA/Goddard organized several semester-long PLATO Space Flight Center Graduate Student lecture series to communicate science to Researchers Program fellowship for 2011. Continued on page 6

5 The Washburn Observer

“News Notes” continued from page 5 mentoring committee, thanks to my department mentoring throughout the entire committee and the UW-Madison WISELI process.” (Women in Science & Engineering Stanimirovic Leadership Institute) support through researches neutral gas in many workshops and their women the Milky Way and its faculty mentoring program,” says immediate neighbors, Stanimirovic. focusing on the conversion of atomic gas into Alumni News molecular clouds and David Koch, a graduate of later stars. She and her the AMEP (Applied Mathematics, students use the premier Engineering and Physics) program, is radio telescopes, including the deputy principal investigator for From left, Snezana Stanimirovic and Sebastian Heinz the Arecibo Observatory, the Kepler Mission at the NASA Ames lifelong learners. the Expanded Very Large Array, and the Research Center in Moffett Field, CA. “The tenure process was a lot of Australian SKA Pathfinder. Her research Soeren Meibom is an astronomer work but very rewarding,” says Heinz. and educational work were recognized at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for “It gave me a real sense of all the things by the Research Corporation for Science Astrophysics in Cambridge, MA, where I accomplished during my time here at Advancement with the Cottrell Scholar he works with NASA’s Kepler Mission. the UW. I really appreciate the support Award in 2009. from the department, and especially my “The tenure process went smoothly

Stephan Jansen Retires

originally had one really big machine “No question or request for help (his word for “computer”) and a medi- um-size machine that ran a VMS operat- was too big or too small for ing system. The department then bought Stephan.” desktop machines running Digital Unix, — Ellen Zweibel SGIs running IRIX, and finally switched to Linux. Now, the department has 200 to biggest challenge he sees in the future. 250 computers, a number of which are in Disk space is becoming cheap, but it’s clusters of 50 and 100 in service rooms in hard to back up and maintain and keep Sterling and Chamberlin. the hardware running, he explains. Stephan Jansen Making everything work together With his characteristic humility and ow that systems programmer was Stephan’s biggest challenge. “At wry sense of humor, he claims that his NStephan Jansen has retired after 23 one time I had all the operating systems greatest accomplishment was managing years at the Astronomy Department, his at the same time, and it was painful to to stay at the department until he retired. cell phone alerting him to data storage get them to work together,” he recalls. Stephan received a bachelor of sci- problems won’t ring at 3 a.m. anymore, The key to his success was his infinite ence degree in computer science and math but his three cats will still awaken him at patience and not getting irritated. “No from UW-Madison. His hobbies are biking 4 a.m. question or request for help was too big and reading science fiction and fantasy, so Stephan’s job was to maintain the or too small for Stephan,” says Profes- naturally his retirement plans are “to ride a department’s computer hardware and sor Ellen Zweibel. “Stephan was always lot of bike and read a lot of books.” software. “Playing with new hardware there to head off disaster by telling us “I’ve always been interested in and interacting with people were the best what we needed to do to upgrade our astronomy,” says Stephan. “I don’t know parts of my job,” he says. “The worst computing equipment,” adds emeritus how to do the science, but I do know how part, of course, was the middle-of-the- Professor Ed Churchwell. to make the programs work. I picked night phone calls.” What to do with all the data, which up just enough information to make He explains that the department is growing by leaps and bounds, is the me dangerous.”

6 Jack Honor Finds the Perfect Fit

e all try to make sense of the (REU) program, working on radiative community. Wworld in our own way. Undergrad transfer models with astronomy senior Always interested in math and Jack Honor is doing it by majoring in scientist Barb Whitney. Radiative transfer computers, Jack didn’t think he was astronomy and physics. is the flow of energy as light through going to be a scientist. As a freshman, This summer, Jack, now a junior, material. Jack used Barb’s code (several he realized that he wanted to never participated in the department’s decades in the making and still getting stop learning about the world, and an Research Experience for Undergraduates better!) to create models of young stellar based on physics seemed like objects in order to better understand how a perfect fit. His future plans include stars form. graduate school, but he’s keeping As observing techniques become his doors open. When he’s not doing more sensitive and more complex science, Jack bikes, golfs and hangs out morphologies are discovered, modeling with friends. With an older sister who software needs to be able to handle graduated from UW, he became a Badger the newly discovered processes and fan early on. shapes. Jack tested the code to make Jack’s research was recently sure it modeled these new morphologies featured on astrobites, a website that correctly. He also modeled real-world introduces undergraduates to research protostellar objects to help characterize by explaining selected astro-ph articles, their physical traits. The newest version at http://astrobites.com/2011/08/21/ of the code will soon be published undergrad-research-1/. and open for use by the astrophysical Jack Honor

Board of Visitors Helps Department Shoot for the Stars

ollowing the lead of other UW Peter Livingston, Donald Procknow, astronomy at UW-Madison,” says Fdepartments, the Department of Robert Terrell and John Wiley. For more Department Chair Bob Mathieu. “They Astronomy launched its own Board of information, visit the Board of Visitors also have become an integral part of the Visitors in the fall of 2002. Its members section of our website at www.astro.wisc. Department community.” are a diverse group of people who edu. (Click on Friends & Alumni, Board The Department’s relationship with share a love of both astronomy and the of Visitors.) the Board of Visitors has already reaped University of Wisconsin-Madison. The Board assists the Department benefits in its short history. The Board The Board advises and assists the in a number of ways. It acts as a was very active in the review of the Department and its chair in fulfilling sounding Board and an advocate for the Department’s strategic plan for research the Department’s mission and vision. Department’s vision, long-range plan and kicked off a matching challenge to It also serves as a bridge between and programs. It assists in establishing fund the proposed initiatives. It was astronomy amateurs and professionals; contacts and relationships between the instrumental in establishing the Grainger the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department and pertinent organizations postdoctoral fellowship, and in the administration, students and alumni; and individuals in the University creation of this newsletter. the State of Wisconsin; and the wider community. It helps identify and The Board also relishes adventures— community. leverage synergies between astronomy intellectual and otherwise—including, in The Board of Visitors is made up of projects and potential commercial recent years, a visit to the Kennedy Space business and science agency executives, applications. It assists the faculty, in Flight Center and launch of the shuttle marketing professionals, journalists, conjunction with UW Foundation Atlantis, trips to the WIYN Observatory academics and amateur astronomers development efforts, to secure funding in Tucson and the SALT Observatory in living not only in the Midwest but also for new and forward-looking programs South Africa, and a weekend of theater, on both coasts. Current members of included in the Department’s plan. And art and astronomy in Spring Green, WI the Board include: Pat Bautz, David it advises on opportunities to enhance celebrating the 400th anniversary of Beckwith, Russell Christesen, Kenneth the impact and image of the Department. Galileo’s first use of the telescope to gaze Ciriacks, Jere Fluno (chair), Richard “The Board of Visitors plays into the heavens. Greiner, Dan Koellen (vice chair), an important role in the success of

7 The Washburn Observer Volume 1, No. 2 • Fall 2011

Sterling Hall 475 North Charter Street Madison, WI 53706-1582 Jeff Miller, University Communications

Autumn leaves cover the ground in front of the newly renovated .

State Fair visitors viewed sunspots and distant landmarks through telescopes set up by UW Space Place and the UW-Madison Astronomy Department as part of UW-Madison Day at the Wisconsin State Fair on August 10. Staff also distributed educational booklets, posters and bookmarks as part of the event.