BYU West Mountain Observatory Project

Document Type

News Content and Videos

Publication Date

12-2023

Abstract

The West Mountain Observatory is an astronomical research facility operated by Brigham Young University, located on an isolated mountain approximately 22 kilometers southwest of the main Provo UT campus. The observatory was upgraded 15 years ago and has since been utilized primarily as an undergraduate research facility. The observatory is well suited to do work on projects utilizing time series photometric observations and has been particularly successful at conducting multiple projects for undergraduate student researchers that require observations of different durations and cadences using various filter combinations. This requires additional planning and cooperation between the different programs that are often running during the same periods of time. Our student observers are often asked to coordinate their observations with observations for other student projects so that everyone can get the data they need regardless of temporary disruptions from weather, schedules, instrumentation problems, or other unforeseen events. This use of cooperative observing has worked well in past years and has resulted in our undergraduate student researchers gaining a wide variety of experiences securing observations for projects as different as making rotation curves of solar system objects, observing various classes of variable stars, detecting exoplanet transits, and working on reverberation mapping and variability analysis of AGNs. This paper will present results from our recent 2023 summer observing season that included four BYU undergraduate students and three students participating in a 10-week Research Experience for Undergraduates. Each of these students spent multiple two-night observing runs at the observatory doing cooperative observing for multiple projects.

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