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Survey of Light Pollution in the Rogue Valley, Southwest Oregon, St. Mary’s School, Medford, OregonABSTRACT & CONTEXT
Rural areas in Oregon, including the Rogue Valley, are renowned for beautiful dark skies. Electric light came to Medford, Oregon, the largest town in the Rogue Valley, in 1894. During the past 100 years the Rogue Valley grew from 2,500 individuals in 1895 to a population of 76,462 and a metropolitan area population of 208,545, in 2012. The increased population density resulted in increased light pollution. A light pollution chart using DMSP, Defense Meteorological Satellite Program data was published in 2006, but did not show the spatial variation in detail. In the spring of 2014, the 9th grade physics students, astronomy students, and members of the Astronomy Club from St. Mary’s School conducted the first detailed night sky survey. The purpose of the survey is to create a baseline of the variations in light pollution in the Rogue Valley. The project started with a talk by Steve Bosbach, former Texas IDA coordinator, on the topic of light pollution and how it affects our lives and the environment. Groups of students were given the tasks of measuring the night sky brightness in the Rogue Valley, doing a light audit in an area of their choice, and researching what light pollution is and its effects on the environment. From this they created a presentation for a final physics grade. The basis for this project, along with procedures can be found on the Globe at Night (www.globeatnight.org) website. The light audit and research portion were developed from the Dark Sky Rangers section (www.globeatnight.org/dsr/) of the website. In the fall of 2014, astronomy students and club members extended this study to the town of Ashland and the Southern Oregon University campus, areas of the Rogue Valley not surveyed in the Spring. This survey will increase awareness of light pollution in the Rogue Valley, as well as educate developers and city planners on the impact that light pollution has on the environment in Southern Oregon. It will help determine areas of concern and areas of dark sky compliant lighting, which could spur appropriate regulation regarding outdoor lighting. |
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Lunar Pi Project https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2NLdnrCvw56SlNGWDlUdzVPRzA/view?usp=sharing
How We Became Involved
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Click here to see the Cold Spot Crater Presentation https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2NLdnrCvw56b2hCc1hnMk1QZ3M/view?usp=sharing |
St. Mary’s School Radio Jove Project 2013-2014: How We Became Involved
by Holly Bensel, St. Mary's School, Medford, OregonSt. Mary’s Astronomy Research Team Specialist or SMARTS is a high school astronomy club in Medford, Oregon. Every year the club participates in a project such as double star observations, Lunar and Planetary Institute’s High School research program, or NITARP (NASA/IPAC teacher Archive Research Program). While talking to a team member from our NITARP project one of our club members learned about the Radio Jove project. We did some research and decided to build a receiver and antenna for the 2013-2014 school year. Four students took charge of building the receiver, but everyone celebrated at the end of the year club party with the successful initial run and data collection of our telescope. Building the receiver was extremely educational. We were glad the Radio Jove group had members that could fix our two mistakes on the circuit board. Meeting Chuck Higgins at the American Astronomical Society (AAS) conference in Washington, DC put a face to the project. It was fun to be involved in the teleconferences. Since our telescope had yet to be built during the Jupiter season, having the opportunity to listen to the noise picked up by other telescopes and have someone explain what we were seeing and hearing was great! We learned a lot on those occasions. St. Mary’s High School Astronomy Club celebrating the successful completion of our Radio Jove receiver system.In July one of my students and I took the Radio Jove telescope to Pine Mountain Observatory for a 5 day high school research workshop. This was the first time a radio telescope made an appearance at the workshop. It was a successful week for us. We could run it when it was cloudy, when the sun was out, and when it was raining. The individuals with the optical telescopes fought the weather. David Haworth was there to lend some much needed advice on reading the squiggly lines and confirming our results with other, reliable sources. One of the other high school teachers from the workshop is seriously thinking about building a Radio Jove telescope after seeing our telescope in action. Emry Timmons and our Radio Jove telescope set up at Pine Mountain Observatory near Bend, Oregon.Our next step is to collect more data and perhaps catch some Jupiter/Io storms this year. |
Why Should We Study the Moon?
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