A student observatory located on the roof of the Natural Science Building on Belknap Campus is used in the astronomy lab classes and by majors in the Physics Department's Astronomy/Astrophysics track.
The telescope in the dome on the left is an 11-inch Celestron Schmidt-Cassegrain mounted on a Byers German equatorial. It was a gift of Walter L. Moore, and for several years it was the visitors telescope at Moore Observatory. It was moved to Belknap campus in 1999. This dome was originally the site of the Miller Telescope, a 12-inch Alvan Clark reflector which has been retired.
In spite of a location in the midst of our bright urban heat island, this 11-inch diameter telescope provides good images of the moon, planets, multiple stars, and bright nebulae. The rooftop location offers a clear horizon suitable for observing planets at opposition, or close to the Sun at sunset or sunrise.
The panoramic image also shows the coelestat for the vertical solar telescope which feeds a live solar image into the astronomy laboratory classroom. Look for a structure on the north wing of the building, near the bottom at the center of the image.
The remotely operated
16-inch telescope
at Moore Observatory offers students and authorized visitors
an opportunity to observe faint objects under darker skies.
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Last update: January 12, 2003
kielkopf@louisville.edu
