Allyson Bieryla

Astronomy Lab and Telescope Manager (Harvard) & Astronomer (SAO)

I manage the Astronomy Lab and Telescope at the Science Center which is used for undergraduate teaching. I also run the Harvard Observing Project (HOP) which is designed to give students opportunities in observational astronomy. My research interest is in observational astronomy with a specific interest in the detection and characterization of exoplanets.

 

CONTACT

Email : abieryla@cfa.harvard.edu

Science Center Office: B-10A

CfA Office: B-218

Phone : (617) 384 - 8419

Mailing Address : 60 Garden St. MS-10, Cambridge, MA 02138

RESEARCH

I am an observational astronomer. I work mostly on the detection and characterization of exoplanets. I've worked on ground-based transit surveys such as the Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (KELT), the Hungarian Automated Telescope Network (HATNet), and the Qatar Exoplanet Survey (QES). I have also been involved in space-based follow-up work, including Kepler, K2 and now mostly TESS. Most of my follow-up work uses the TRES spectrograph on the 1.5m Tillinghast Reflector Telescope and KeplerCam on the 1.2m telescope both located at the Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory (FLWO) on Mt. Hopkins, AZ.

My recent work has been focused on characterizing warm Jupiter systems and measuring the projected spin-orbit angle by observing the spectroscopic transit of the planet. These measurements allow us to begin to infer information about the how warm Jupiter systems form and evolve.

Astronomy Lab and Telescope

Harvard University

Astronomy Teaching Facilities

I manage the Astronomy Lab and Telescope located at Harvard University's Science Center. We have a 16-inch DFM Telescope and many small portable telescopes, as well as a heliostat for observing the Sun. The facilities are used for teaching and we have both daytime and nighttime labs.

I run The LightSound Project. We designed a sonification (converts light to sound) device to serve as a tool for the blind and low vision community to observe a solar eclipse. We are building and distributing these devices for the April 8, 2024 Total Solar Eclipse. Visit the website for more information!

I run the Harvard Observing Project (HOP) which is designed to provide observing opportunities for undergraduates and allow graduate students more opportunties to observe while mentoring undergraduates. Each semester we run an observing campaign on a target or targets of interest that will provide students an opportunity to learn observing techniques and data analysis skills.