Cate Marian

  • Vanderbilt University

    Redbuds Abound

    Every season shares its own unique beauty with us, but spring bursts with especially joyful color. On the Dyer property we look forward to the first blooms of the native redbuds (Cercis canadensis) on top of our hill about this time every year. Photo by… Read More

    Apr. 10, 2020

  • Observing the Universe with Neutrinos

    Observing the Universe with Neutrinos

    On this date (April 9) in 1987, Vanderbilt University physicists announced a project named Deep Under Muon and Neutrino Detector (DUMAND) to study neutrinos, tiny particles that escape from stars and violent events such as supernovae. The scientists involved were especially interested… Read More

    Apr. 9, 2020

  • Seyfert's Sextet

    Seyfert’s Sextet

    Galaxies are often very photogenic.  There are roughly as many galaxies in the observable universe, each with millions to over a trillion stars, as there are individual stars within our own galaxy, the Milky Way.  If you do the math, that means there are more stars in the… Read More

    Apr. 8, 2020

  • Muriel Mussells Seyfert – Jack of All Trades

    Muriel Mussells Seyfert – Jack of All Trades

    Muriel Elizabeth Mussells Seyfert (1909-1997) was an astronomer and research assistant at Harvard College Observatory.  Among other things, her work led her to discover three new planetary nebulae in the Milky Way in the mid-1930s. The discovery was picked up by the newswires… Read More

    Apr. 7, 2020

  • Vanderbilt University

    Admiring the Fruits of the Labors

    The year 1953 was special for Vanderbilt University.  Construction of the Arthur J. Dyer Observatory was completed, and the facility was officially given to the university on December 27th.  Transforming the observatory from a concept into a reality was no easy task, especially for Dr. Carl K. Seyfert,… Read More

    Apr. 6, 2020

  • Early Morning Bolide

    Early Morning Bolide

    Earth is constantly under attack from space invaders, but not the kind you usually see in the latest summer sci-fi flicks. For the most part, it is sand grain-sized particles of rock and ice that constitute the ~100 tons of debris that become part of our planet every… Read More

    Apr. 3, 2020

  • Vanderbilt University

    A Nesting Great Horned Owl

    Visitors to Vanderbilt Dyer Observatory’s Telescope Nights will often hear the haunting calls of a great horned owl echoing through the valleys surrounding the observatory’s property.  Over the past decade, a great horned owl has called one of our nearby oak trees home a handful… Read More

    Apr. 2, 2020

  • Vanderbilt University

    Barnard Observatory

      Dyer Observatory is not the first observatory of Vanderbilt University. Pictured above is Barnard Observatory, one of the first four buildings constructed on the main Vanderbilt University campus in the 1870s and eventually named in honor of Nashville’s own Edward Emerson Barnard. Housed inside… Read More

    Apr. 1, 2020