Annual Star Party a (giant ball of) gas
Kenneth Brisendine
Issue date: 11/13/09 Section: Campus Life
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The Observatory, a $150,000 building was completed in Feb. 2006 and has a $250,000 telescope which was fully operational in April after being manufactured and installed by Astronomical Consultants and Equipment, Inc. The Star Party allowed students and guests to view the night sky clearly and tour the facilities.
Outside a display showed the latest image captured by the fully robotic Research-Grade Ritchey-Chretien 32-inch telescope.
"You're seeing photons that left a long, long time ago" Dr. Ables said.
The telescope, which according to Dr. Shaukat Goderya, director of the Program for Astronomy Education and Research, weighs as much as five adult elephants and is housed in an 840-square-foot observatory specially designed to support its weight. The telescope can be remote controlled over the Internet, but that feature is not currently enabled as they are still developing the software. "That's the idea, to let high school students use the telescope" said Goderya.
Below the telescope is the control room which housed three monitors actively viewing the data retrieved from the telescope. People crowded into both parts of the observatory, admiring the telescopes or listening to experts explain what they were observing. Other students stood outside on a cloudless night looking into the vastness of space and discussing topics ranging from technical data to the possibility of life on other planets. "It would be a waste of space if there were no other life in the universe," Godyera said.
In addition to the telescope housed in the observatory, there were three other telescopes outside the observatory. Guests were served coffee and hot chocolate as they marveled at the heavens far from the interfering lights of Stephenville. Students brought night vision goggles, small flashlights and glow sticks to help them see in the darkness surrounding the massive piece of extra-planetary viewing equipment. At 7:30 p.m. the International Space Station was visible, if you were looking in the right place.
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