Anisha and Dhruv were honored to receive one of the First Place Awards in Physics & Astronomy, as well as recognition as top 20 overall out of approximately 400 projects, at the recently concluded 2025 Washington State Science and Engineering Fair (WSSEF). Their award-winning project and poster, titled “Precision Measurements of Binary Star Orbits: A Speckle Interferometry Approach to Stellar Dynamics,” impressed judges with its detailed analysis, innovative techniques and lasting impact in this field of astronomy.
The journey started in June 2024 when Dr. Chandru Narayan’s students visited Mt. Wilson Observatory in a student research program provided by Boyce-Astro. They spent one night gathering over 500 observations for 6 binary star systems, making direct observations using the 60-inch telescope. It was an exhilarating experience for the team. Over the subsequent months, the team analyzed the data and applied Speckle Interferometry using Speckle Toolbox to remove the atmospheric interference of their images and identify the orbits of the candidate binary systems. Through their analysis they were able to affirm the accuracy of the processing done by Speckle Toolbox and validate the technology.
At WSSEF, the students presented their findings over two rounds of judging. Their efforts were recognized with a First Place Award, a Top 20 overall placement, and a special scholarship award from Ohio Wesleyan University. The students credit their success to their time at Mt. Wilson, which helped shape their project and showed them how new technology makes ground based telescopes more valuable.
They look forward to returning to Mt. Wilson in the summer of 2025 to build on their research and continue exploring the dynamic world of stellar astronomy.
