NOAO 50th Anniversary Celebration Presentations Now Available Online

In March of this year we celebrated, with a series of scientific meetings and public evening talks, the 50th anniversary of the National Astronomy Observatory (now NOAO and NSO). As described in the February issue of Currents, the dedication in 1960 of Kitt Peak National Observatory marked the beginning of merit-based access to world-class facilities for all astronomical researchers. The subsequent creation of the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory added access to the southern skies through the National Observatory. Open access to facilities based only on merit, then a relatively new paradigm for observing facilities, has played an important role in the rich achievements of the US astronomical community over the past 50 years.

Many of the presentations made at these events are now available online. From First Light to Newborn Stars focused on the physics of star formation in galaxies, from early times to the present and in both distant and nearby galaxies, including the Milky Way. The Eventful Universe explored the time domain in astrophysical phenomena, including solar system, Galactic, and extragalactic objects, with a common theme of understanding the best observational strategies for detecting, characterizing, and following up transient events.

Participants from the two science meetings came together for a joint session, 50th Anniversary Symposium, Celebrating the Past, Looking to the Future, that looked back at the contributions of NOAO and NSO to several important areas of astrophysical research as well as forward to the discoveries that will be enabled by the future activities of NOAO and NSO. Talks by Alan Dressler, Charles Lada, Heather Morrison, Douglas Rabin, Vera Rubin, and Nick Suntzeff covered topics such as dark matter and dark energy, the solar corona, star and galaxy formation, and the history of the Universe.

Presentations from these events are now available online in either PDF or PowerPoint format at https://legacy.noirlab.edu/kp50/ under the program links for each symposium.

At the same site, we have archived video presentations of the public evening lecture by Alan Dressler (“The Living History of the Universe”) as well as those from a second public evening “Why Kitt Peak? The History of Iolkam Du’ag and the Birth of Kitt Peak National Observatory” that featured presentations by Dr. Aden B. Meinel and Bernard Siquieros. The first Director of Kitt Peak National Observatory, Meinel spoke about the history of the selection of Kitt Peak as the location for the National Observatory. Siquieros, the Education Curator of the Tohono O’odham Nation’s Cultural Center and Museum, shared a Tohono O’odham perspective on the meaning and history of Iolkam Du’ag, or Kitt Peak, Baboquivari, and the other mountains of the Tohono O’odham Nation. Please enjoy these presentations and join with us in celebrating our 50th anniversary!