Philip Massey

Astronomer, Lowell Observatory

Phil observing at the MMT, Nov 2003. Photo by Kathy Eastwood.

A mosaic of 9 fields in Andromeda being surveyed by the Local Group Galaxies Survey project. This mosaic was assembled by Knut Olsen.

Observing the SMC and LMC (framed in the dome slit) on the CTIO 4-m in December 2005.

Phil got his BS and MS from Caltech (1975), and his PhD from the Univ of Colorado (1980). He held a postdoctoral appointment at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory (1981-1983), and then joined the staff of Kitt Peak National Observatory in 1984 as a staff astronomer. His duties there including looking after after the 4-m telescope as its telescope scientist. He analyzed the thermal envirmonent in order to improve the delivered image quality (seeing). Phil joined the Lowell staff September 2000.

Research Interests

Recent publications

Phil's Excellent Trip to Chile Nov/Dec 2004

Phil's Pretty Good Trip to Chile Dec 2005

My talk on "Massive Stars in the Local Group" to the STScI May 03 Symposium on The Local Group as Astrophysical Laboratory.

My talk to IAU 212 (July 02) on Evolutionary Constraints on Massive Star Evolution.

Why Phil Didn't Go to Chile in 2001

(From a letter read on NPR's All Things Considered Sept 27, 2001)

Outreach

Phil usually works with an undergraduate student each summer through the NSF's Research Experiences for Undergraduates program at NAU/Lowell. Students that have worked with Phil in Flagstaff:
Summer Student Project Publication
2005 Erin Darnell Eclipsing O Stars in Clusters In prep
2004 Emily Levesque The Effective Temperature Scale of Galactic Red Supergiants (1) Levesque et al 2005, Astrophysical Journal, 628, 973; (2) Massey et al. Astrophysical Journal 634, 1286; (3) Levesque et al. 2006, Astrophysical Journal, submitted
2003 Wayne Schlingman Photometry of stars in M33 Massey et al. 2006, Astronomical Journal, 131, No. 5 (May 2006), in press
2001,2002 Shadrian Holmes Wolf-Rayet Stars in IC10 2002 Astrophysical Journal 580, L35
2001 Julia Vukovich Massive Binaries in the R136 Cluster 2002 Astrophysical Journal 565, 982
2000 Alaine Duffy Search for Wolf-Rayet Stars in the SMC 2001 Astrophysical Journal 550, 713
1999 Cathy Slesnick A Modern Study of h and Chi Persei Slesnick, Hillenbrand, & Massey, 2002 Astrophysical Journal 576, 880
1998 Elizabeth Waterhouse The Progenitor Masses of Wolf-Rayet Stars and Luminous Blue Variables Determined from Cluster Turn-offs. 2001 Astronomical Journal 121, 1050 and 2000 Astronomical Journal 119, 2214
1996 Valorie Burkholder The 'Mass Discrepancy' for Massive Stars 1997 Astrophysical Journal 490, 328
1995 Olivia Johnson Survey for Wolf-Rayet Stars in M33 1998 Astrophysical Journal 505, 793
1994 Kelsey Johnson The IMF and Massive Star Evolution in the OB Associations of the Northern Milky Way 1995 Astrophysical Journal 454, 151
1993 C. C. Lang The Initial Mass Function of the Magellanic Clouds 1995 Astrophysical Journal 438, 188

A few of the other summer students Phil has been priviledged to work with:

E-mail: massey @ lowell.edu

Last updated 30 Dec 2005