The Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper (WHAM) is a custom-built

telescope A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, Absorption (electromagnetic radiation), absorption, or Reflection (physics), reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally, it was an optical instrument using len ...

operated by the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

, used to study the

Hydrogen-alpha Hydrogen-alpha, typically shortened to H-alpha or Hα, is a deep-red visible spectral line of the hydrogen atom with a wavelength of 656.28 nm in air and 656.46 nm in vacuum. It is the first spectral line in the Balmer series and is emit ...

ion An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by convent ...

s of the warm ionized medium. It is a tenant telescope at the

Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory The Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) is an Astronomy, astronomical observatory located on the summit of Mt. Cerro Tololo in the Coquimbo Region of northern Chile, with additional facilities located on Mt. Cerro Pachón about to th ...

(CTIO), in the Coquimbo Region of northern

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

History

First interest in the ionised

hydrogen Hydrogen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol H and atomic number 1. It is the lightest and abundance of the chemical elements, most abundant chemical element in the universe, constituting about 75% of all baryon, normal matter ...

of the

interstellar medium The interstellar medium (ISM) is the matter and radiation that exists in the outer space, space between the star systems in a galaxy. This matter includes gas in ionic, atomic, and molecular form, as well as cosmic dust, dust and cosmic rays. It f ...

came when Ron Reynolds pointed a spectrometer through a makeshift observing portal in an office of the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Physical Sciences Laboratory during the late 1970s. Reynolds and colleagues, including Matt Haffner, a senior scientist in UW-M's astronomy department, later developed WHAM.WHAM Brings Milky Way's Ionized Hydrogen into Focus
SpaceDaily.com, 2017-04-12 WHAM formally began life at

Kitt Peak National Observatory The Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) is a United States astronomy, astronomical observatory located on Kitt Peak of the Quinlan Mountains in the Arizona-Sonoran Desert on the Tohono Oʼodham Nation, west-southwest of Tucson, Arizona. With ...

(KPNO) in November 1996, using the flat mirrors of a two axis, all-sky

siderostat A heliostat () is a device that reflects sunlight toward a target, turning to compensate for the Sun's apparent motion. The reflector is usually a plane mirror. The target may be a physical object, distant from the heliostat, or a directi ...

passing light horizontally through a 0.6 m diameter, 8.6 m focal length objective lens into a 2.5 m x 2.5 m x 6 m trailer that contained the spectrometer, that used a low noise, high efficiency

CCD CCD may refer to: Science and technology * Charge-coupled device, an electronic light sensor used in various devices including digital cameras * .ccd, the filename extension for CloneCD's CD image file * Carbonate compensation depth, a property ...

camera as a multichannel detector behind a pair of diameter Fabry-Perot etalons/spectrometers.The Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper
R.J. Reynolds et al, Australian Astronomical Society, V15 N1, accessed 13 April 2017 The system was automated, so that the entire WHAM facility, including opening and closing at the beginning and end of the observing night, was operated from a campus office at the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States * Madison (footballer), Brazilian footballer Places in the United States Populated places * Madi ...

. It operated there from 1996 to 2008. In 2009, WHAM was moved from KPNO to CTIO. WHAM's field of view allows a whole sky survey in about 2 years. WHAM mapped the details of the Reynolds Layer.

References

External links

Official website

WHAM publications
*
The Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper Northern Sky Survey
(2003 report) *
Early Results from the Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper Southern Sky Survey
(2010 report) * People *
Matt Haffner
- Senior Scientist *
Ron Reynolds
- Emeritus {{Portal bar, Chile, Astronomy, Stars, Outer space, Education, Science University of Wisconsin–Madison Optical telescopes Astronomical observatories in Chile

History

See also

References

External links