The Swope Telescope and Earth’s Shadow

A photograph of a white, cylindrical observatory building topped with a large, metallic silver dome. The structure sits on a dark, rocky foundation against a twilight sky that gradients from deep blue at the top to a soft pink and orange at the horizon. In the distant background, the dark silhouettes of mountain ranges are visible under the fading light.

Label: The Swope Telescope and Earth’s Shadow
Artist: Jing Lu
Description: This is a photograph of the Swope Telescope located in Las Campanas Observatory, Chile. It was taken during one of the observation night back in June 2017. Swope is a 1-meter telescope which was the first telescope located the optical source of the gravitational wave GW170817. Along with the telescope, you can also see a dark bluish to purplish band near the horizon, and that is the shadow of our Earth appeared on the east side during the sunset. My research is focused on observational type Ia supernovae, it’s one of important keys to help us understand the accelerating universe.
Type: DSLR
Artist Affiliation: Graduate Student
Department: Physics
Area of Research: Astrophysics
Date: 2017