The Stargazer HOME PAGE INSIDE: By Tommy Deas…

                The Stargazer
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INSIDE:         By Tommy Deas
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FOOD & WINE     September 13, 2005
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TRAVEL &        Bill Keel makes a living looking into
  ENTERTAINMENT space and time, peering at images
PEOPLE          made a long time ago by galaxies far,
EVERY ISSUE     far away.
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                The University of Alabama professor
                is one of the privileged few with
                regular access to the Hubble Space
                Telescope and has been involved with
                projects for NASA?s space shuttle
                program. He is UA?s resident stargazer, in charge of the school?s
                telescope in Galilee Hall.

                     Keel?s interest in space started when he traded one childhood
                     fascination for another. ?I think I transitioned immediately from
                     dinosaurs into space,? he said. ?By the time I got into junior high
                     school, I started looking toward careers in space. Growing up in the
                     ?60s, space was in.?

                     Keel mowed lawns all summer to buy his first telescope while he was
                     in middle school and was moved by what he saw when he gazed
                     through the eyepiece of that telescope. He?s been smitten ever since.
                     His office reflects that interest, with galactic images on the walls and
                     models of items ranging from the Mercury capsule to the Apollo
                     moon buggy to the International Space Station cluttering his desktop.

                     As UA?s keeper of the telescope, Keel got a boost earlier this year
                     when the school replaced its 55-year-old model for a newer version
                     that has computer control, digital technology and a 16-inch diameter
                     mirror for better range and clearer images. Keel wasn?t sorry to see
                     the old one go.

                     ?There are some old telescopes I feel nostalgic for, but that?s not one
                     of them,? he said. ?We?ve come forward about a century in what
we?re able to teach students to use with it.?

Keel became involved with the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope
soon after it was launched in 1990. His work on reducing blur in
astronomical images by using digital technology made him a natural
for the project. Scientists have to vie for time on the Hubble and
submit proposals to a board that decides where the telescope will be
aimed, with about 10 percent to 20 percent of the requests granted.
Keel?s first project was approved about 10 year ago, and he?s been
involved with similar projects ever since.

?I?ve looked at images [produced] 11 billion years back, when the
universe was a little under 20 percent of its present age,? he said.

Keel also was part of the 1998 space shuttle mission that returned
John Glenn to space. Keel was part of a group of scientists involved
in a project that provided a 16-inch telescope designed to look at
ultraviolet images from galaxies that the Voyager spacecraft had
previously photographed to get addition images to compare.

?The shuttle project was interesting,? Keel said. ?A bearing on one of
the mounts froze. There were three of us in a room doing
trigonometry, trying to figure out what stars we could aim at [with
the telescope frozen in place]. We didn?t get near as much data as we
planned out of it.?

Keel?s fascination with space came full circle almost a decade ago.
As a youth, he watched the Leonid meteor shower and logged his
impressions of the event in his astronomy notebook. In 2001, when
the Leonid shower returned, he got to experience it with his son,
Nathan, and shared his notes and sketches from his viewing in the
1960s.

Even after decades of looking at planets and stars, Keel still
experiences the same feelings when he ponders the vastness of space.


?The universe is big,? he said. ?The sense of awe is what goes on in
your brain behind your eyes. You see the immensity of creation.

?I think it?s good to be boggled once in awhile. You can deal with
the numbers, but to think about it, it has a really deep impact.?



Title: Professor of astronomy

Age: 47
                Education: Bachelor?s degree in physics and astronomy from
                Vanderbilt University; doctorate in astronomy from University of
                California at Santa Cruz

                Hometown: Born in Jackson, Miss., Family moved to Nashville,
                Tenn., when he was 3 months old.

                Family: Wife, Terri; sons Nathan, 12, and Christopher, 16.

                What do like you like best about summer?
                ?Just being a university type, your life gets a little more flexible over
                the summer. If you?ve got a bunch of errands, it doesn?t matter if it?s
                9:30 or 10 o?clock when you get home.?

               What inspires you the most in your work?
               ?Oddly enough, it?s just the chances which really don?t occur in
               research to go out and stare into space that connect with the universe,
               the beauty and meaning of it.?
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