Badlands Observatory welcomes an intern
Yes, we have an intern! In September of this year we met Beck Bruch’s mother at the Indian Education Summit in Rapid City. She told Beck about Badlands Observatory and he wasted no time in contacting us. After speaking with Beck and his program coordinator at Sturgis Brown High School, we were impressed with his exemplary academic achievements and career goals. Beck continues to impress us… he is motivated, hard-working, and a real joy to have at the Observatory. Good for us too as his knowledge of current events and cutting edge technologies keep us on our toes!
Many thanks to the South Dakota Space Grant Consortium and all those who support Beck and Badlands Observatory! Beck will be sharing outcomes of his projects as they happen. This is Beck’s first post to our website. We look forward to many more! Congratulations Beck on your first DSO image!
Hello everyone! My name is Beck Bruch, and I am proud to introduce myself as the new intern at Badlands Observatory. I am a senior at Sturgis Brown High School, and I am working with Ron and Teresa as a part of my school's youth internship program. I intend to pursue aerospace engineering and/or astrophysics in college, so I am incredibly grateful for this fantastic opportunity. Through my time here, I will gain experience in observation, imaging, research, and observatory maintenance, and over my month or so of time already spent working, I have already contributed to some exciting new projects. One of these is my first try at Deep Sky Object imaging, and I am proud to present the following image of the Veil Nebula. I would like to thank Ron and Teresa, as well as Dr. Ed Duke and Tom Durkin of the SD Space Grant consortium for supporting my astronomical endeavors, and I look forward to many clear days and nights ahead.
The Veil Nebula imaged by Beck Bruch at Badlands Observatory. Beck used a 114mm f/5.3 Vixen APO Refractor with an unmodified Nikon D800. He took seventy 2 minute unguided subs and 20 dark frames and processed them with Pixinsight. Further processing was done in Photoshop, Topaz and Astronomy Tools.