In a broadcast recorded live at the McDonald Observatory near Ft. Davis, Texas, MPR reporter Lorne Matalon and Morning Edition anchor Travis Bubenik spoke with Dr. Taft Armandroff, the recently appointed director of the observatory.
The three met up at the Observatory's 82 inch Otto-Struve Telescope, an historic instrument that nonetheless remains on the front line of modern day astronomical research.
The Struve Telescope, named for a Russian astronomer who was the observatory's first director, was the second largest in the world when it was dedicated in 1939.
Armandroff brings impressive credentials to his new position.
He comes to the McDonald Observatory from Hawaii, where he was director of the Keck Observatory, situated on the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii.
He succeeds David Lambert, the observatory’s third director. Lambert will return to his position as a full-time faculty member at UT Austin’s Department of Astronomy.
Prior to joining Keck Observatory in Hawaii in 2006, Armandorff worked for 19 years at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tucson, Ariz.
Armandroff graduated in1982 from Wesleyan University, with a B.A. in Astronomy with High Honors. He went on to Yale University where he earned two masters degrees and PhD in astronomy.
He is a research astronomer who specializes in dwarf galaxies, stellar populations in our and nearby galaxies, and globular clusters, knowledge of which is key to understanding the evolution of the Universe.
In a wide ranging discussion with Bubenik and Matalon, Armandroff talked about the intersection of two of his passions, science and philosophy, and how the two have melded in his professional and personal life.
On the science side, Armandroff is excited about the upgrade to the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET), one of the world’s largest telescopes, now being fitted to begin the HET Dark Energy Experiment.
Dark energy is the term used to explain why the expansion of the universe is accelerating rather than slowing.
The experiment will take on one of the universe's biggest mysteries by compiling a three-dimensional map of the early cosmos.
The hope is that the survey will help inform astronomers about the nature of dark energy, a mysterious agent thought to constitute nearly three quarters of the universe's mass.
On the philosophy side, Armandroff said he has been profoundly touched by the lessons in abject humility that astronomy affords about humankind's place in the cosmos.
Armandroff was reminded of a recent comment by his colleague, Bill Wren.
Referring to the threat to the Observatory's legendarily famous ink black night sky. Wren said;
“I think the consequences for losing touch with the starry sky are beyond what we can imagine at this point in time....What if Van Gogh were alive today? Would he be inspired to paint “Starry Night”again? I mean, could he even see the Milky Way from Saint Rémy in France? And the answer is no he couldn’t. It’s light polluted."
Armandroff said that the emitters of unwelcome light are centered in the oil and gas fields of the Permian Basin of west Texas.
But he said ongoing dialogue between Bill Wren and oil and gas companies is going well, and that he is confident the issue can be contained if not eliminated.
- Lorne Matalon and Travis Bubenik, KRTS/KXWT News