Lincoln-Way North teacher tries out NASA's classroom in the clouds

Peggy Piper took a flight like no other.

Instead of sitting in coach, she took off in the cockpit. Once they reached 40,000 feet in altitude, the telescope’s door was opened and she got to see the Saturn Nebula.

“When that image came up and it had the shape of Saturn, the planet … it was just amazing,” she said. “When it came up on the screen, my mouth just dropped open.”

Piper said NASA astronomer Bob Rubin did the same thing.

“It was exciting because until you get the object, you’re not sure,” she said. “The astronomer was very excited as well. You never know what’s going to happen.”

A flying observatory

Piper, a teacher at Lincoln-Way North High School in Frankfort, was one of six teachers chosen nationwide to view the stars from a flying observatory for NASA’s Airborne Astronomy Ambassadors program.

The teachers were the first group of educators to fly on the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy. SOFIA is a highly modified Boeing 747 airliner fitted with a 17-ton, 100-inch diameter infrared telescope.

Scientists use the telescope to analyze infrared light, studying the formation of stars and planets. They also look at the chemistry of interstellar gases, the composition of comets, asteroids and planets and black holes at the center of galaxies.

At 5:30 p.m. May 31, SOFIA took off from Dryden Air Force Base in Palmdale, Calif., flying over Illinois and returning to base about 10 hours later.

The front of the airplane was mostly unmodified, leaving half of the first-class seats in place. The rest of the plane is an observatory in the sky with computer monitors, equipment and the telescope.

Unlike a regular plane trip, Piper and other passengers had to carry around an oxygen pack in case the plane lost altitude. At 44,000 feet altitude, the pilots had to wear oxygen masks.

“At those kind of altitudes, you don’t have much time to get the oxygen on right away,” said Piper, of Orland Park. “It’s serious business.”

Hunting for the Saturn Nebula

For Piper, 50, who teaches physics, astronomy and meteorology, seeing the Saturn Nebula was the highlight of the flight. Part of the constellation Aquarius, the Saturn Nebula has become a bright white dwarf star with rings at the edges that make it look similar to the planet Saturn.

Brooks Automation Wins Prestigious R&D 100 Award for the 830 ...

CHELMSFORD, Mass., June 23, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Brooks Automation, Inc. (Nasdaq: BRKS ) was honored recently with a R&D 100 award for one of the 100 most technologically significant new products introduced over the last year. R&D Magazine recognized the Model 830 Vacuum Quality Monitor (VQMTM) for its unique method of determining gas composition with an electrostatic autoresonant ion trap.

There are an amazing number of products that rely on a manufacturing process that occurs under vacuum pressure including semiconductors, LEDs, solar panels, disk drives, glass coating, plating on plumbing fixtures, light reflectors, mirrors, etc. The 830 VQM provides vacuum technologists a way to understand the composition of gas species that exist in their chamber allowing them to detect leaks, look for contamination, and monitor specific gases during the manufacturing process. The ultra fast speed, low power requirements, and high sensitivity in the ultra high vacuum (UHV) range have opened up new markets and applications for the 830 VQM.

The technology behind this breakthrough is an autoresonant ion trap which represents an entirely new way of mass selection. It starts with ion creation which includes capturing all ions within the trap; an electrostatic field keeps the ions oscillating within the trap at their resonant frequency; and the ions are ejected through an autoresonant energy pumping process using a low amplitude RF frequency scan. This technique delivers many advantages, including speed (85 msec for a 1-135 amu scan), low power consumption (8 W typical), small size, simple calibration, and remote sensor operation meaning the electronics can be remote from the sensor and any controller can drive any sensor.

"It is a great honor to be recognized by an industry-leading technical journal like R&D Magazine for the innovation, design and productization of the 830 VQM," said Joergen Olsson, General Manager of the Granville-Phillips® Product Center. "Our team has developed a game-changing product that has numerous benefits for current and new customers."

The 830 VQM system is available now and consists of an ion trap mass spectrometer gauge, a VQM Controller and VQM Viewer software that provides the ratio of each gas to others in the measurement range and with the addition of the 390 total pressure measurement kit, the partial pressures of each gas.

For more information go to www.brooks.com or email vqm@brooks.com .

Natural gas energy measurement

Animal and Human Calorimetry

Industrial air pollution monitoring

Clinical laboratory medicine

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