Dress warmly! Can be below freezing anytime at 6500 foot elev.
PINE MOUNTAIN OBSERVATORY IS NOW CLOSED FOR THE 2011-2012 WINTER. THE WEATHER HAS ALREADY BEGUN TO PRECLUDE ACCESS AND SKY OBSERVING. THE OBSERVATORY WILL RE-OPEN in APRIL, 2012, weather/road permitting, for group visits by reservation. Regular public drop in visits, Fri/Sat evenings, will restart the Fri/Sat of next Memorial Day weekend at end of May. Program starts at dusk, try to arrive while there's still some twilight. Viewing generally continues until midnight but sometimes we'll stay up all night if sky is clear and if visitors are present. Check this site for Moon Phase and Sunset/Sunrise times, Full Moon will drown out dimmer "deep sky" objects.
School groups and any other groups of more than 8 people must make an advance reservation so that adequate observatory staff can be mustered. Requests can be made for any day/time. Check with Mark Dunaway (markpmo@oregon.uoregon.edu or 541-382-8331) about renting the Observatory for an evening exclusively for your special group.*
Highly recommended for school groups to make reservations months in advance, as Dark Moon weekends go fast. You can contact Mark right now to schedule a group/school visit for 2012. Always a good idea to specify a backup time in case weather precludes visit on original date.
$5/visitor drop in on weekends. $125 for first 20, then $5 per person over 20 people for prearranged private tours during non-drop-in times. *Check with Mark about rates for exclusive use of the Observatory.
Groups joining weekend regular tours MUST schedule in advance and rate will be $5/visitor since we need to bring in extra staff.
NOTE: We are NOT open on Sundays, even on the holiday weekends, as we don't have sufficient staff for Sundays, staff need to head home to go to work on Mondays.
Check the webcam and weather logs from the Pine Mountain Observatory link at http://pmo.uoregon.edu to see current weather conditions.
We plan to be open all Friday/Saturday nights through the Summer, through the last complete Fri/Sat of September.
From top of Pine Mtn, 32" Telescope dome, 15" Telescope dome, 24" Telescope dome. Campground back in woods. photo by Mark Dunaway
Here are some general guidelines about visiting the Mountain when you come up.: Program starts at dusk. DRESS WARMLY, we're at 6500 foot elevation! Try to arrive when there's still some daylight left, so you can get oriented. PMO is about an hour's drive from Bend, turn right onto the dirt road, just past the small yellow metal shed just beyond the abandoned Millican Store, exactly 26 miles east of Bend on Hwy 20 (MP 26). Bring a small flashlight, covered with red cellophane, to preserve night vision. Check in at the info center and gift shop just north of the parking lot. You can pick up a free sky chart plus red cellophane for your light. There's a Forest Service Campground adjacent that has no fees, no reservations, but no water. We request a $5 donation per visitor to help defray costs. If you wish to bring a group of over 8 people we request that you make an advance reservation, contact Mark Dunaway, info below, he'll quote you the group rate. (You and your group can "rent the observatory for a night" by making an advance reservation.)
Click here for details about visiting Pine Mountain. This is the link to the new UofO Pine Mountain Observatory website, it has links to the web cams and onsite weather station, plus a virtual trip from Bend to Pine Mountain and around the Observatory. (Virtual tour pictures are from several years ago so they don't show new Welcome Center and Tent Auditorium, we'll post some new photos shortly).
Contact Mark Dunaway, markpmo@oregon.uoregon.edu, 541-382-8331, to schedule group tours to the Observatory, including school groups. Don't hesitate to schedule school visits well in advance for the Spring or for the Fall. Ideal times as darkness occurs earlier than in mid-summer, weather in Fall is usually good, and there are less crowds at the Observatory after Labor Day. Mark can furnish pricing info for the group tours.
Rick Kang coaching students at Roosevelt MS Eugene operating portable CCD Camera
photo by Teacher Dana Maffit
WE'LL VISIT YOUR CLASSROOM: We offer 45-90 minute long outreach sessions for grades K-16 classrooms throughout the schoolyear and anywhere in Oregon.
1. We'll help you design or we can present programs about basic Earth-in-Space topics, particularly those items in State Standards, such as Sun-Earth-Moon system, reason for seasons, Moon phases, tides, and details of Solar System.
2. We can offer enrichment and supplemental programs to cover topics and technologies beyond the basics of astronomy, such as stellar physics, astrobiology, cosmology, and digital imaging.
3. We can help you design or present lessons that focus on Science Inquiry and Engineering Design Standards, astrophysical topics and technologies provide a great match. Many of these are projects that would work as Work Samples, as data is always involved.
4. We can offer reading texts about the sky so that students can learn about astrophysical content and discoveries as they fulfill the new more intense Reading requirements that are in place at many schools.
5. Astrophysics is a natural jumping off topic for Math, let us show you some examples of applications such as large numbers, estimating, exponents, angles, and ratios.
Most sessions feature Inquiry Investigations that incorporate data from the sky. We use kinesthetic activities, model building, and various mapping and counting activities. We show a variety of digital images. Ideally max 25 students/class, not generally for assemblies, although we can do large group overview presentations. We can tailor to many different topics and all ages, and we bring a laptop, LCD projector, and various other technologies usually including a telescope. We need a darkenable room with a screen to project onto. We supply prep info, worksheet masters, and reference info such as URLs. We often do multiple repeat sessions, the key is to station us in one classroom and rotate each class in, as we have extensive setup of gadgets we bring. We can also provide staff development when we visit, and will offer you many resources. Click here for additional details from the old FOPMO website.
Listing of some of our current most popular programs: 1. Apparent Sky Motion: find evidence for Earth's motions in Solar System by examining images taken by students of how the night sky changes over short and long time intervals. 2. Construct an Analog Moon Computer: model the Moon relative to Earth and Sun (Moon on a stick manipulative), then construct a dial device from several pieces of cardboard that lets you envision and explain the relationships of Moon phase, location in sky, and time of observation. 3. Reasons for Seasons: Do a series of thought and kinesthetic exercises plus an investigation with light, that lead you to the reasons why Oregon experiences the Summer/Winter cycles. In all three of these above programs we incorporate the virtual reality Sun-Earth-Moon visualization software. 4. How We Know What We Know (about distant objects/phenomena): Starting with the premise that "the photons are the data", we investigate the challenge posed by sparse photons from afar, then engineer telescopes and examine digital cameras as solutions to collecting and detecting the few and far between photons. We examine the nature of the incoming light, and correlate the three measurable factors of the light to the physical properties of the source and conditions of the path of travel. Thus, we work through the technology and techniques used by astrophysicists to study objects in deep space. Can be adapted to lower gradelevels. 5. Squashed Stars: Investigate how the Universe forms stars, the evolution of various types of stars, and the ultimate demise of some of the larger ones into Black Holes. We use a variety of media to illustrate the processes, and students get to try to form black holes from pieces of aluminum foil. We measure density with our Gravity Well model (flexible cloth surface). We'll examine how we might search for evidence of black holes and what might happen if you accidentally fall into one. We'll also make the connection to the formation of everyday elements by stars, and can investigate how we think stars form a retinue of planets. 6. NASA missions out into our Solar System: We can present a variety of programs that address the hardware, flight strategies, and findings of a number of the current missions, including Mars Exploration Rovers and Cassini-Huygens to Saturn, plus the New Horizons mission to Pluto. We also have an overview program about exploration of all the major objects from the Sun to the Kuiper Belt. 7. The search for exo-solar planets and the chances of finding life out there: Based on two talks I recently attended (Dr. Seth Shostak of Search for Extra Terrestrials Institute (SETI), and Dr. Victoria Meadows of Virtual Planetary Laboratory (VPL), some data and some speculations on the very high chances that we'll eventually find someone else out there, although we have no direct evidence so far. The first half of the program addresses the breakthrough discovery of recent years that apparently most if not all stars have planets (solar systems), and how one goes about finding indirect evidence for planets since we cannot yet actually observe bodies orbiting other stars.
Most of the programs incorporate digital illustrations, kinesthetic activities, and/or opportunities to work with some technology (telescopes, digital cameras).
We can tailor a program for the topic(s) you desire and of course to your students' grade level.
Fees and Costs for Classroom Outreach: This schoolyear (2011-2012), due to the severe budgetary constraints around the state, we're reducing the basic $20 to UO Pine Mountain Observatory Fund to an optional $10 to $20 payment to cover equipment use costs (we bring quite a few gadgets). I'm still volunteering my time. I still do need reimbursement of travel costs for trips more than 40 miles round trip from Eugene: $50 per day for car rental, plus fuel, and $70 per day for lodging. I'm covering my meal costs. Kent Fairfield or other instructors may have different reimbursement needs, please check with them individually, thanks! Cost sharing with other schools in district or adjacent district often helps make a visit feasible. At this point we're still in the process of locating funding resources for our school visiting operations. We hope that school districts, in light of the extreme upcoming budget crunch, have reserved some dollars for the outreach program for the 2010-2011 season, we're doing all we can to find dollars on our end.
Info Center 
From top of Pine Mtn,
Rick Kang coaching
