克雷奇玛霍尔天文台
2024年5月11日:极光
Over the Mother's Day weekend, we had the largest display of northern lights in many years. The observatory was not a good place to view the display since it restricts the view of the sky and is very bright. 离镇只有几英里，这里的景色美极了.
2024年4月1日:庞斯-布鲁克彗星
在过去的几个星期里，庞斯-布鲁克斯彗星在日落之后就可以看到. In the picture below, a wide field image was taken using a digital camera on April 1, 2024. 在那张照片里, 木星, 黄星哈马尔, 彗星用红色箭头表示. The high-magnification inset picture of the comet was taken by averaging 13 minutes of data from the 4.5英寸望远镜在2024年3月18日. 尾巴很暗，但可以看到.
2023年10月28日:父母周末
为父母度周末, we opened the observatory on Saturday night for over two hours while approximately 100 students, 父母, 教师, 员工们也来欣赏这里的景色. 天气很凉爽，但月亮很圆，天空万里无云. 网上博彩澳门银河用16英寸望远镜(主要)观测月球和木星. 4.5" digital telescope was used to look at fainter objects such as the 礁湖星云 shown below at left and the 沙漏星云 shown below at right. The picture of the the 礁湖星云 was averaged for 8 minutes and the 沙漏星云 was averaged for 5 minutes.
2023年10月:超新星2023ixf更新
早在5月份，网上博彩澳门银河就发布了用望远镜从超新星2023ixf上拍摄的照片. 从那时起，收集到的更多数据显示了亮度随时间的变化. 第一张照片是在恒星爆炸前一周拍摄的. 其他的面板显示超新星在九月之前一直非常明亮. 从那以后，它开始耗尽.
2023年7月:长曝光比较
在七月一个晴朗的夜晚，鹰状星云(M16)被用4.5”望远镜. 左边的图像是网上博彩澳门银河在实时观看模式下看到的. 右边的图像已经曝光了33分钟. “创造之柱”就在图片的正中央.
2023年6月:长曝光
Summer viewing in the Walla Walla valley is always at the mercy of forest fires and dust storms but we have had a few clear nights. 虽然它不适用于大型团体，但4.5英寸的望远镜可以在很长一段时间内平均图像. 在下面的图片中，西面纱星云被拍摄了36分钟. 在图像的右侧可以看到星链卫星的条纹.
2023年5月:超新星2023ixf
Our telescope uses universal time so the time stamps are ahead one day from the observation time for pictures taken before midnight. We didn't get the best focus on the telescope but the supernova is so bright it doesn't matter. This image was averaged for seven minutes to minimize vibrations on the roof from all of us standing on it.
2023年5月:新的数字望远镜
16英寸米德望远镜有一个可以连接的摄像机. 然而, most visitors to the observatory want to look through the telescope rather than watch a monitor so we leave the camera off. 这意味着在网上博彩澳门银河最显眼的位置, 网上博彩澳门银河没有得到图像叠加的优势，所以星云和星系非常暗淡.
解决办法是买一个4.5英寸数字望远镜-来自Unistellar的eVscope 2. This scope has the camera and processing built into it which makes it very easy to use. 图像被发送到瞄准镜侧面的视口，并通过无线传输到平板电脑上. 在右边的图片中，16英寸在左边，4英寸在左边.5"在右边. 为了正常操作，4.5英寸被放置在外面的屋顶上.
网上博彩澳门银河第一次看到它是在2023年5月11日. We still need to collimate the scope and identify the spot on the roof with the lowest vibration. The image below to the left is the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) and the image below to the right is Globular Cluster in the constellation Hercules (M13).
2023年春季:活动
从冬天到春天，天空大多是阴雨连绵. Before the dryer weather arrived in late April, the success of the viewing was limited.
- 3月2日，3月u日访客. 在云层变得太厚之前，月亮可以看到大约一个小时.
- 4月3日，4月u日访客. 由于下雨，这次活动不得不取消. 祝你明年好运.
- 4月25日，物理概念、一般和原理课. 金星和月球的绝佳景色.
- 4月29日，校友周末参加者. 这是网上博彩澳门银河整个春天遇到的最好的天气，还能看到月亮的美景, 金星, 火星, 和M13. 该活动持续了两个小时，约有100人参加.
- 5月12日，物理和生物物理专业. Excellent weather but the sunset is getting quite late so the observations also start late.
The moon as imaged by the 16" Meade with a 31mm eyepiece and recorded by a cell phone camera. 2023年4月25日，Debbie muthersaugh拍摄了这张照片.
The exterior view of the observatory with the dome open from the outside observation deck. 这张照片是由黛比·穆瑟斯堡在2023年4月25日拍摄的.
2022年秋季:赛事
With the vibration damping improvement from the tuned mass damper and the clear skies provided by a late summer drought, 这是网上博彩澳门银河有史以来收视最好的一个季度. Jupiter was at its closest approach in decades and Saturn was also in a prime viewing location. We got in the following groups before the fall rains started and put an end to the clear weather:
9月15日，教职员工. M13，木星和土星.
10月1日，概念物理、普通物理和物理原理的学生. 木星，土星，M13, M31，还有月球.
10月12日，WWU的所有成员在上午11点的电子邮件中宣布. 木星，土星，M13, M31，还有月球.
10月22日，家长周末. 木星，土星和M13. 云层在观赏期间升起，所以现在季节结束了.
2022年夏季:减振
The air legs beneath the telescope reduce the vibration by about 50% but also introduce a drift that is telescope angle dependent. 结果是, moving the telescope to a new location always includes steps of fine position correction. This makes the telescope harder to use with large groups of people who want to look at different objects.
远处物体的位置显示在左图中. 蓝线表示无阻尼位置在两个轴上来回摆动. The yellow line shows the air legs reducing the jiggle but introducing a vertical drift that is almost double the jiggle.
The work this summer focused on trying to get another method of vibration suppression that was as good as the air legs. 夏天结束的时候, 空气腿从系统中移除，并添加了调谐质量阻尼器(TMD). 如图所示, the TMD is mounted near the top of the pier and is made of 6 lead bricks floating on sorbothane. 6和10 Hz的主要振动峰在每个轴上都减少了约5 dB.
春季2022:振动阻尼和事件
在圣诞假期期间，一种比内胎更好的减震解决方案被投入使用. A减振公司, 台湾记忆体公司, makes air legs so four of those were put between the telescope and the pier as shown in the picture at right. 它们大大降低了振动.
2022年5月:与物理专业的学生一起观察, 普通物理课, 物理原理课, 和概念物理课. 所有的行星都在凌晨2点左右升起，所以网上博彩澳门银河把目光转向了M31和月亮.
2021年秋季:振动测试和事件
从夏天一直到秋天, the vibration on the telescope pier was studied using a combination of accelerometers and the camera. 左图所示的数据是在望远镜的目镜上拍摄的. 而有更高频率的振动, 6 Hz和9 Hz的双峰最大.
November 2021: Observation was done with 普通物理课 and the physics majors in spite of the vibration on the telescope. 网上博彩澳门银河很好地看到了月球、木星和土星.
抑制振动的第一步是将望远镜浮在内胎上. 一种特殊的振动材料——山氧烷也被尝试过. 这些方法有所帮助，但不足以成为最终解决方案.
2021年春季:活动
April 2021: We celebrated the return to campus after the COVID lockdown with an observation evening for 普通物理课 and all physics majors. 这架16英寸的望远镜主要用来观察满月. 观景台上的便携式望远镜是用来观察火星的. 许多学生用手机通过望远镜拍摄照片.
在4月的观测之后，购买了一台新的望远镜相机. 之前的相机大约有20年的历史了, 用平行部件连接到计算机上的, 是水冷的. 这个新相机是USB - 3接口的.0和空气冷却，所以更容易使用. 照相机的放大倍率是为行星距离设计的. 本页顶部横幅上的图像是用新相机拍摄的.
在买相机之前, 在望远镜上看到的图像中可以看到振动，但很难测量. With the camera, the vibration was quantified and a project improvement plan was started.
天文台的历史
An observatory was planned for the top of the third floor when Kretschmar Hall was built in 1962. 然而, since the third floor was not built at that time, neither was the observatory. When a third floor was finally added, it provided an opportunity to complete add this feature.
点击这里观看视频 从1998年4月开始，圆顶正在被螺栓固定到位. 天文台完工并于次年开放使用.
The observatory is situated on the roof of Kretschmar Hall and is accessible via stair from the third floor of Kretschmar Hall and via elevator from Chan Shun Pavilion. It is currently equipped with a 16" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and an external observation deck for use by smaller telescopes.
天文台从西边呈圆顶状.
望远镜的另一个视图.
16英寸的施密特-卡塞格林望远镜.
从外面看向开放的穹顶.
