Astronomy observations

From Physiki

M8, the Lagoon Nebula, taken 9/17/2007 at Merrill Creek Reservoir by the Physics 304 class

Part of M31, the Great Galaxy in Anromeda, observed 10/23/2008 by the Physics 304 class.

The advanced astronomy course, Phys 304: Observational Astronomy, makes use of some advanced astronomical instruments to make observations of the skies. The instruments we have available include:

Telescopes:

• 6 Celestron C8-S Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes on CG-5 equatorial mounts used primarily at our dark sky site at Merrill Creek Reservoir
• a Meade LX 90 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope.
• a Celestron C14 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope housed in a dome at Metzgar Fields
• several older telescopes including a 3.5" Questar.

Instruments:

• an SBIG ST-8 autoguiding CCD camera with CFW-9 color filter wheel equipped with either LRGB color filters or UBVRI photometric filters
• an SBIG self-guiding spectrograph
• a computerized equatorial mount with GPS compatible with the autoguiding CCD.

The visible solar spectrum as observed by the Physics 304 class 10/29/2007 by directing solar light to the SPEX-1250M spectrometer with a fiber.