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Session 39 - Astronomy Education.
Display session, Tuesday, June 09
Atlas Ballroom,

[39.03] A Campus Observatory for an Undergraduate Astronomy Program

H. D. Powell, L. F. Collins, G. D. Henson, M. W. Castelaz, D. G. Luttermoser, D. M. Close (East Tenn. Sa. U.)

A new observatory on the campus of East Tennessee State University went into service at the beginning of spring semester 1998. The observatory supports the instructional, research, and service components of the undergraduate astronomy program within the physics department. It consists of a 1000 square-foot building and an outdoor observing area equipped with permanent piers for mounting eight Meade LX-200 8-inch telescopes. These telescopes and accessory CCD cameras may be controlled from computers inside the building via underground cable connections to each pier. The building has a fourteen-foot dome housing a C-14 telescope on an Optomechanics Model 20M mount. The C-14 telescope and its accessories, which include an ST-6 CCD camera, are operated from an adjacent control room. Architectural plans will be available for inspection and discussion. The use of the observatory in the ETSU astronomy program will be presented.

Support for the purchase of equipment through NSF ILI grant DUE-9351227 is gratefully acknowledged.

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The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: powellh@etsu.edu

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