The Astronomer's Crypt by David Lee Summers

Author:David Lee Summers [Summers, David Lee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lachesis Publishing Inc
Published: 2016-12-09T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Lord Byron wrote that stars were the poetry of heaven.

Maya, Claire, and Evan were gathering data on stars that were believed to host planets. The picture on the computer screen was a long gray stripe produced by a spectrograph mounted to the 5-meter. Maya pointed out the black lines that cut across the stripe. These were the star’s unique chemical fingerprint. Understanding what the lines said about the star was like teasing out the meaning from a poem.

A new image appeared on the screen and Claire wrinkled her nose. “I can’t tell. Did the lines move?”

“We’ll have to reduce the data before we can tell.” Evan sounded haughty to Mike, as though the answer should be obvious. Movement in the lines from one image to the next meant a planet tugged on the star, but most observers couldn’t tell that just from looking at the screen. The movements were so subtle, they could only tell after analyzing the data carefully at the university.

Mike manned the telescope as the students concentrated on their research. As their observations progressed, clouds began rolling in, obscuring the stars over the site. Some astronomy experiments required the light from sources in the sky to be completely unobstructed, but this work could be done through a few clouds, as long as the dark spectral lines were visible. Bethany, however, would be having a much more difficult time getting the images she needed.

Maya, Claire, and Evan discussed the data that rolled in. Mike grabbed his copy of Tony Hillerman’s A Thief of Time. A good mystery would help pass the time. The observers would stay on the current target for a while. At 9:30 p.m., the phone rang, startling him. He put the book aside and answered.

“Hey Mike, have you looked at the clouds, they’re getting kind of thick out there.” He recognized Stan’s voice.

Mike looked at the all-sky camera’s display. Sure enough, the cloud cover had increased. What’s more, the guide star that enabled the telescope to fine tune its tracking was fading in and out. “I see that. You think the clouds are threatening?”

A groan sounded from the students, overhearing the conversation and realizing they might have to close the telescope to protect the equipment.

“I think so,” said Stan. “Why don’t you check it out? I’ll do the same.”

Mike hung up and grabbed one of the walkie-talkies that sat on a nearby shelf so he could discuss the situation with Stan while away from the phone. “Looks like I need to go check out the sky,” he told the students.

“It would be great if we could finish this spectrum. We only have about thirty minutes left on it,” pressed Maya.

“I know,” said Mike, “but if it looks like we may get rain, I’m going to have to ask you to finish early. I know it hurts your science, but if the telescope gets damaged, that keeps others from using it.”

Maya looked as if she was going to argue but seemed to think better of it and nodded.

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