Theodore Roosevelt once said, "Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground," and that's just the experience you'll receive at The Observatory. This site was developed to house the department telescopes at a permanent location. The observatory is used for astronomy classes and labs taught at the university and for research by university personnel. The observatory is open to the public for scheduled open house events. The observatory houses a number of telescopes which can be used simultaneously. These include a 27 inch, 16-inch and several 10-inch telescopes.
The newest addition to our collection is housed in the new AstroHaven dome, a clamshell design. Inside the dome is our Planewave CDK 700 telescope & Andor Ikon-L CCD. The first light image was taken of M13 on May 31, 2018. (More images to follow.) The original dome houses a Meade 16-inch LX200 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope with an attached 5-inch Televue refractor. This telescope and dome can be controlled remotely by computers. The 10-inch telescopes are mounted on piers which are aligned with the stars. Along with looking through the telescopes they are also to be used for classes, labs, astronomical imaging, and research. The observatory uses special CCD cameras which are made specifically to image very faint astronomical objects. The cameras pick up details that the eye is unable to detect. The cameras can be used to collect light for long periods of time, and track the motion of an object, in order to capture the faintest details possible.
That was a lot to take in, but then again, so is the universe!
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