A Visit to Kitt Peak

A Visit to Kit Peak, written by Sherry Sterling.

《基特峰之旅》，谢里·斯特林 著

Introduction Hi, I'm Sherry, and I'm an amateur astronomer, which means that just for fun, I like to learn about faraway stars and planets and other mysterious things in space. I recently toured Kitt Peak National Observatory. It sits high atop a 6 ,875 -foot -tall mountain outside of Tucson, Arizona. The land the observatory is built on belongs to a Native American tribe. I heard the tribe wasn't going to let astronomers build on its sacred mountain, but the tribe changed its mind after looking through a telescope. They started saying the astronomers had long eyes since they could see so far with their telescopes. That made me laugh. I pictured people looking up at the stars with eyes longer than their arms. But it made a lot of sense because a telescope does make it seem as though your eye can reach the stars.

介绍 你好呀，我是谢里，我是一名业余天文学家，意思就是我纯粹出于爱好，喜欢研究太空中遥远的恒星、行星和其他神秘天体。 我最近参观了基特峰国家天文台。 它坐落在亚利桑那州图森市郊外，一座海拔6875英尺的高山山顶。 天文台建造的这片土地属于一个印第安原住民部落。 我听说部落一开始不想让天文学家在他们的圣山建天文台，可他们透过望远镜看过之后就改主意了。 他们说天文学家长了长眼睛，因为靠着望远镜能望那么远。 这话可把我逗笑了。 我脑子里还浮现出人们盯着星星看，眼睛比胳膊还长的样子。 不过这个说法其实挺有道理，因为望远镜确实会让你觉得，自己的眼睛好像够得到星星一样。

The mountaintop is perfect for stargazing. Away from city lights, it stays pitch dark at night. Being on a mountain keeps the telescopes above the dusty dirt that the wind churns up in the valley below. Besides, being up high gets you even closer to the planets and stars. Before going inside the telescopes, we stood at the edge of the mountain to look out at the small city of Tucson in the distance. I could see the base of the mountain near where I live. Though it was a hot and dusty summer day in Tucson, we had to wear jackets on the cool, windy mountaintop. I was glad to have a break from Tucson's heat. Kitt Peak has a collection of 26 humongous telescopes. These aren't telescopes you can hold in your hand. All these telescopes need an entire building to hold them up and protect them.

这座山顶太适合观星了。 远离城市灯光，这里夜里黑得伸手不见五指。 在山顶上，望远镜位置高于山谷，不会被风卷起的扬尘影响。 除此之外，位置越高，离行星和星星也就更近呀。 进到望远镜建筑之前，我们站在山边眺望远处的小城图森。 我能看到山脚下我家附近的区域。 那天图森城里又热又多尘，可我们在凉风习习的山顶还得穿外套呢。 能躲开图森的酷热，我可太开心了。 基特峰一共有26台巨型望远镜。 这些可不是你能拿在手里的小望远镜。 每台望远镜都需要一整栋建筑来支撑、保护它。

The tour at Kitt Peak let me get close to three of them. One is a solar telescope that astronomers use during the day for studying the sun. The other two are star telescopes they use at night for studying stars and planets and other mysterious things in space. Solar Telescope I had never heard of a solar telescope before going to Kitt Peak. Since the sun is a star, I had always thought that astronomers studied it with the same telescopes they used for other stars. But I learned that because the sun is so bright, scientists need different equipment to look at it. Kitt Peak has the largest solar telescope in the world. Standing next to it, I felt like an ant. It is as tall as a ten -story building. On the top of the telescope, it looks as if there is a picket fence, which is actually a windbreak to keep one of the telescope's mirrors from shaking. Then there is this large ramp that looks like a slide coming off one side. The slide -like ramp actually continues at the same angle four stories below the ground. This thing is huge!

基特峰的参观让我近距离接触了其中三台望远镜。 一台是太阳望远镜，天文学家白天用它研究太阳。 另外两台是恒星望远镜，天文学家晚上用它们研究恒星、行星和太空中其他神秘天体。 太阳望远镜 我去基特峰之前从来没听说过太阳望远镜。 既然太阳也是恒星，我之前一直以为，天文学家研究太阳用的就是研究其他恒星的同款望远镜。 但我后来知道，因为太阳太亮了，科学家需要用不同的设备来观测它。 基特峰拥有全世界最大的太阳望远镜。 站在它旁边，我感觉自己就像一只小蚂蚁。 它有十层楼那么高。 望远镜顶端看起来像一圈尖桩篱笆，其实那是挡风板，用来防止望远镜的镜片晃动。 望远镜的一侧有一个大斜坡，看起来就像滑梯。 这个滑梯一样的斜坡保持同一个角度，一直延伸到地下四层。 这个家伙可太大了！

From the inside, the McMath -Peirce Solar Telescope looks like a roller coaster track. It has 200 feet of track above ground and 300 feet below. It needs that much space to keep the sun's reflected light from burning up the equipment.

从内部看，麦克马斯-皮尔斯太阳望远镜就像过山车轨道。 它的轨道200英尺在地面上，300英尺在地下。 它需要这么大空间，是为了防止太阳的反射光烧坏设备。

The solar telescope has three mirrors that do most of the work by reflecting the sun's light. The mirrors are on a trolley so astronomers can move them along a track. I learned that the trolley moves the mirrors really slowly, four feet per minute. That would make it a really boring roller coaster. I could run up and down the distance of the track at least twice before the mirrors move four feet.

这台太阳望远镜有三块镜片，靠反射太阳光完成大部分工作。 镜片装在滑车上，天文学家可以让它们沿着轨道移动。 我了解到滑车移动镜片的速度特别慢，每分钟才走四英尺。 那这过山车可太无聊了。 镜片移动四英尺的功夫，我都能在轨道上来回跑至少两趟了。