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2018 Annual Report 2018 ANNUALREPORT 18 TABLEOFCONTENTS20 1 Trustee’s Update 2 Director’s Update 3 Astronomy Article 7 Science Highlights 30 Technical Support Highlights 33 Development Highlights 35 Public Program Highlights 38 Putnam Collection Center Highlights 40 Communication Highlights 42 Volunteer Highlights 43 Peer-Reviewed Publications 52 Conference Proceedings & Abstracts 61 Statement of Financial Position TRUSTEE’SUPDATE By W. Lowell Putnam While this report is about 2018, facilities. Thanks to great support from it is published in 2019 on the 125th our donors we will be opening the anniversary of the observatory, so a Giovale Open Deck Observatory as certain amount of reflection is expected. well as adding increased parking, more As you will see is looking through storage, and improved traffic flow… this document, Lowell Observatory with more to come in the next few is continuing to follow the mission years. established by our founder, and the In looking back through our archives current staff are doing an excellent job for this milestone year we came across scientifically and in public outreach. the original seal that Percival used in Supporting those individuals are other publications about research work done hard working groups in technology, at Lowell. There will be a full story operations and development. All about that later, but the Latin motto of them contribute to making this Percival chose for the seal translates institution the success it is today, and all as “Worlds Revealed”. As you look that success is built on the hard work through the science articles noted and efforts of those in prior years all in the following pages, you will see the way back to 1894. that works continues to this day, and We are also looking forward to the increasing success of our public what 2019 has to offer. If you come to programs allows us to help reveal that our main campus on Mars Hill you will work to new guests and generations. see major changes. With over 105,000 Thank you for supporting all this visitors last year we have gone well great work! ■ beyond the capacity of our current Lowell Observatory | 2018 ANNUALREPORT | Trustee’s Update 1 DIRECTOR’SUPDATE By Jeffrey Hall Perchance, I am writing this note for Federal support for science and basic our annual report on the morning of R&D seems increasingly deprioritized, May 28, 2019—125 years to the day private-sector support again comes after Percival Lowell stepped off a train to the fore. The Discovery Channel in the frontier hamlet of Flagstaff and Telescope and its instrument cube made his way up Mars Hill to found the were built entirely with private funds. observatory that bears his name. The Astronomy Discovery Center will Looking out my office window on be substantially or entirely privately- this clear and sunny morning, I can funded as well. With these facilities, see the Clark Telescope dome not far we strive to learn more about the up the hill, where Percival spent many Universe of which we are a part, and nights making meticulous maps of we return our supporters’ investment by Mars. communicating the wonder, the power, A few decades later, Clyde and the fun of science to all. Tombaugh walked into the very office Lowell, Yerkes, Lick, and Carnegie where I am now sitting and said to no doubt understood that this is much then-Director V. M. Slipher, with what more than doing well by doing good. must have been quivering excitement, “I It is a national and ethical imperative, have found your Planet X.” for we are retreating today into almost Quite a few decades after that, medieval superstition. Climate change Trustee William Lowell Putnam, III is a hoax. Vaccines cause autism. Cell and Director Bob Millis committed the tower emissions will kill you. Planes observatory to remain a vital institution spray chemtrails. Evolution is “just a of research, starting us down a 20- theory.” There are canals of intelligent year, $53 million road that would lead construction on Mars. No, no, no; no, to the construction and commissioning no, and no. All of those statements face of the 4.3-meter Discovery Channel overwhelming evidence indicating they Telescope. are false. But increasingly, evidence A few weeks ago, the observatory’s and data no longer matter; perception management team and I met to discuss and Internet trolling are the order of the project and cost management of our day. next massive undertaking, the $35 Everything you’ll read in these million Astronomy Discovery Center. pages is part of our commitment to One hundred and twenty five performing and communicating real years is a long time, and a lot has science, both in our research as well as changed on Mars Hill. But as we our outreach. Here at Percival Lowell’s begin our second 125 years, I see observatory, we would be failing our not just change but an opportunity founder to do any less. Percival was that begins anew a cycle of discovery wrong about Mars, and that’s OK: he and inspiration. The fin de siècle era inspired generations of scientists to when that train arrived in Flagstaff was learn more about the true nature of our one when a number of private-sector neighbor planet, and that’s how science visionaries and philanthropists like works. As we begin our second 125 Percival Lowell, Charles Yerkes, James years, we’ll use the Discovery Channel Lick, and Andrew Carnegie devoted Telescope and, soon, the Astronomy their energy and their fortunes to the Discovery Center to continue to explore advancement of science. Their vision our weird and wondrous Universe, and led to the creation of several great to promote to the greatest extent we observatories that pushed forward the can the rational, data-driven thinking national frontier of astronomy and and decision-making our technical inspired generations to come. Today, as society must have. ■ Lowell Observatory | 2018 ANNUALREPORT | Director’s Update 2 John Hendricks proposed what A unique history MEET THE RESEARCHERS AT LOWELL would become a $16 million Lowell Observatory’s story gift to commence the 4.3-meter begins with Percival Lowell Deputy Director for Science Michael West is a searching for exoplanetary magnetic fields and (1855–1916), part of the famous longtime galaxy expert whose research interests understanding how they may shield a planet from Discovery Channel Telescope include star clusters, galaxy formation and evolu- overpowering radiation. (DCT), the largest and most America’s observatory Lowell family of Boston. Percival graduated from tion, clusters of galaxies, and the large-scale struc- Phil Massey is the principal investigator for the sophisticated telescope in RIGHT: The refurbished and ture of the cosmos. He is also very active in Large Monolithic Imager, the primary optical camera northern Arizona. rededicated Pluto Telescope Harvard University and MIT, astronomy education and outreach, as well as on the Discovery Channel Telescope. He is interested The DCT completely gleams in its dome in June 2018. and he spent his younger days promotion of dark skies. in studying massive stars, binary stars, young star reworked Lowell and sent the running the family business BELOW: In Lowell’s Collection Astronomer George Jacoby, former deputy clusters, and the young stars in nearby galaxies to organization into a more mod- based in Lowell and Lawrence, director for technology, is an expert on planetary understand how the most luminous stars evolve. Center, you can see the Slipher ern, more complex era of oper- Spectrograph, with which V.M. enters a new age Massachusetts. Keenly inter- nebulae who spent most of his career at the Focusing on the solar system, Michael Mommert National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tucson. is chiefly absorbed with studying the physical ations, one that depends on a Slipher discovered the expansion ested in science from his youth, committed staff of around 120 of the universe and the existence however, he was especially Jacoby, who retired last fall, also conducted a great properties of asteroids and comets. He observes of the interstellar medium. deal of research at Kitt Peak National Observatory, these objects in wavelengths ranging from optical employees and many hard- In the January 2019 issue of attracted to the mystery of where he served as director of WIYN Observatory. to near-infrared to help unravel their compositions, working volunteers. The DCT RIGHT: Clyde Tombaugh’s son Astronomy magazine, editor Mars. In 1894, he set about Ted Dunham, who also retired last fall, was masses, reflectivities, rotational properties, and saw first light in 2015 and has and daughter, Alden and Annette (and Lowell Observatory establishing his childhood responsible for astronomical instrumentation devel- overall shapes. Tombaugh, stand next to the Pluto been a workhorse ever since. dream: building an observatory oped at Lowell Observatory. His research centered Also highly interested in small solar system Telescope, with which their father Advisory Board member) on stellar occultations by planets in the solar system, objects is Nick Moskovitz, who studies asteroids The DCT is by no means all discovered Pluto in 1930. Dave Eicher wrote an dedicated to studying Mars and using observations made aboard the airborne using observations and modeling. His work focuses of Lowell’s science activities. outstanding article about other phenomena. observatory SOFIA. on collecting data to understand the link between Some 12 miles (19 kilometers) “America’s Observatory”, Lowell chose what would be Members of the Lowell, Putnam, Tombaugh, Sykes, Slipher, and Christy families stand in front of the rededicated Focusing on icy outer solar system objects, asteroids and meteorites, the origins of asteroid southwest of Flagstaff stands as he calls Lowell. With called Mars Hill in Flagstaff Pluto Telescope on Mars Hill during a historic gathering last June.
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