W7FTT

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Young's Photo Gallery

James W. Young, Professional Photographer

Cerro Tololo

The author was given a special task in early 1998 to become an 'observer'
for 2MASS (the Two Micron All-Sky Survey), a program conducted by the
University of Massachusetts and the California Institue of Technology (CIT)
The program was to produce an Infrared Sky Atlas of the entire night sky,
and was conducted from two 54-inch specially designed telescopes. One was
at Mt. Hopkins, Arizona, and the other identical instrument located at Cerro
Tololo Observatory in northern Chile.

After 2 years of observing for the program at Mt. Hopkins, the principal
investigator for the project asked Jim to conduct the same observations at
the Cerro Tololo facility, as a 'perk' for joining the overall effort. Since
the author had never been in the southern hemisphere, he modified his newly
acquired Ed Byers 'CAM-TRAK' for imaging the southern Milky Way, as he
performing his 2MASS observations. The author's trip lasted 9 days, and
the weather was especially good for imaging the Milky Way, all from June 1
to June 7, 2000 (late fall for Chile).

The necessary modification of the 'CAM-TRAK' was to replace the north sidereal
tracking motor, with a motor for southern hemisphere tracking. In simple terms,
tracking in the northern hemisphere (using the above picture) requires the polar
axis to move the camera from right to left (east to west). Using the same picture,
in the southern hemisphere, the tracking has to go from left to right, instead.

Images

The following images were all taken with JPL's Contarex 35mm film camera using
lenses listed for use with the Contarex camera, under this site's 'History' page.

The film used was Kodak High Speed Ektachrome, and was brought back to the
states for all processing (and eventual scanning).

This is a 6-hour exposure of the South Celestial Pole, with the large 4-meter
'Blanco' telescope dome in the center.

Here is the top of Cerro Tololo Observatory as seen from the 2MASS telescope
area, about 100 feet below the summit.

The Milky Way overhead

The Lagoon (M8), Trifid (M20), and Omega (M17)Nebulae, along with two
open clusters, M23 and M25

The Lagoon (M8) and Trifid (M17) Nebulae to the right, with the center of the
Milky Way centered in the image, with M6 and M7 (open clusters) in the lower left

Alpha and Beta Centarus in the upper right center

From left to right; The Coal Sack (dark area), the southern cross (CRUX), the
Running Chicken nebula in the center, and the Eta Carinae nebula right center