Liam Neeley spends his nights looking at the stars.
The physics major from Shelburne, Massachusetts, is a student worker at the UMass Lowell Schueller Observatory, which houses a professional-grade telescope on South Campus.
“It’s pretty cool to have access to this equipment,” says Neeley, who learned how to operate the observatory while taking Observational Astronomy with Physics Assoc. Prof. Silas Laycock during his junior year.
Ever since Neeley was a child, he had an interest in space. He got his first telescope while in middle school.
“Whenever my family and I went to yard sales, I would look around to see if I could find a telescope,” he says. “Eventually, I found a yard sale that had one.”
Neeley’s personal telescope has gotten plenty of use, but the one at UMass Lowell proved to be a major step up.
“The observatory has a higher-quality telescope featuring robotic controls,” he says. “I can control everything remotely (including opening the roof to the observatory), so I use the telescope on most clear nights.”
The telescope comes equipped with a camera that captures the night sky. For Neeley, the coolest phenomenon he has witnessed is the end of the life cycle of large stars known as red giants.
“The red giants send out gas before turning into white dwarfs (stars that have exhausted their nuclear fuel),” he says.
Neeley is using the observatory for his physics capstone project, which involves measuring the brightness of stars as planets pass by them. This can help determine the size and orbit of a planet.
“With this research, I’m applying what I’ve been learning in class,” he says.
Neeley also helps the public learn more about space during open nights at the observatory.
“I operate the telescope and point out different things for them to look at in the sky,” he says.
When Neeley is not busy working with the observatory, he is serving as the vice president of the Society of Physics Students.
“We have a study room on North Campus, where we have meetings and talks with professors,” he says. “We are also there to answer any questions that other physics students may have about research opportunities or classes.”
Neeley’s experiences at UMass Lowell have solidified his plans for the future: He is applying to graduate school so he can continue studying physics.
“UMass Lowell has helped me realize that I’m definitely interested in doing observational astronomy and not theoretical astronomy,” he says.
