Vatican Observatory receives $500,000

Matt Heistand Arizona Daily Wildcat Director of the Vatican Observatory, Father Coyne, speaks on the topic "Is there a God of the Cosmologists?" Feb. 8th at the Steward Observatory Auditorium. The Vatican Observatory at the University of Arizona is trying to raise $4 million to improve its telescope on Mt. Graham and increase student fellowships.

The grant, which requires the observatory to collect over $1 million in donations, is part of an on-going project to raise $4 million.

In December 1998, the Kresge Foundation, a private group that subsidizes scientific projects, offered the Science Initiative Grant as seed money toward improvements for the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope.

The foundation will hand over $250,000 next month and then the other half of the donation if the observatory raises $1,250,000 by Dec. 1.

"It's a challenge" said Mark Trujillo, executive director of the fundraising campaign.

He said the group has a long-term goal of raising $4 million to improve the Mt. Graham telescope and increase student fellowships.

If the goal is reached, $2 million will go toward fellowships - largely for students from developing nations who attend the Vatican Observatory's summer school in Italy.

Recent graduates will work on research in the U.S. and take their expertise back to their home countries.

The other $2 million would be used for variety of improvements on the telescope.

Private individuals, scientific foundations, and the Bank of Milan have all donated large sums, Trujillo said. The observatory has raised $900,000 for telescope improvements and about $1 million for fellowships.

Father George Coyne, director of the Vatican Observatory, has several improvements in mind for the Mt. Graham telescope.

He notes that all major components of the telescope - optical, electronic and mechanical, will be made more efficient.

"Although they are working together right now, they aren't working together consistently," he said.

An important improvement will be a new adaptive optics system under construction at the University of Arizona Mirror Laboratory. Using the system, astronomers will be able to adjust the shape of the telescope's main mirror to compensate for atmospheric disturbance.

Temperature changes in the atmosphere distort the view of astronomical objects, much like heat coming off a highway warps the view of distant cars. With adaptive optics, Coyne predicts the mirror will be able to eliminate 95 percent of atmospheric disturbance.

The Vatican telescope will be the first large instrument to use the adaptive optics system. Astronomers hope to learn from using the system at a major observatory.

"It is an ideal test-bed for this since it is such an ideal telescope already," Coyne said.

Astronomy graduate student Dan Macintosh agreed. He studies galactic clusters - giant clouds of hundreds, even thousands, of galaxies.

"Adaptive optics would be great to look closely at specific galaxies," he said.

The telescope's mirrors will get a new electronic communication system so they can align with one another with better accuracy.

The primary mirror, a 1.8 meter slab of glass made at the UA Mirror Lab, is assisted by a smaller mirror. The secondary mirror focuses light collected by the primary. In order to function, the two mirrors must be precisely aligned.

"When it works, it works very well, but it has lot of static in it, " Coyne said.

The guidance system which points the telescope will also be made more accurate to improve the speed at which astronomers can pick out faint celestial objects.