Jackson College unveils new astronomical observatory
The new astronomical observatory at Jackson College is a state of the art facility that will allow for more hands-on STEM education and will aid in physics and astronomy courses at the school.
Jackson College is ready for the eyes of its students to look to the sky to observe the stars, planets, and beyond, with the school’s new state of the art astronomical observatory.
Powering the new observatory is the CDK700, which is a complete observatory class telescope that was engineered and designed by PlaneWave Instruments, a company out of Adrian, Michigan.
The design of the telescope allows for both a wider and flatter field as well as an astigmatic-free field of view of the stars. The optics are aligned so that the telescope can perform optimally all the way out to the edge of its 70 millimeter image circle. This means that in an image produced by the telescope, the stars will appear as pinpoints not only in the center of the field of view but to the edge of the field of view.
In an article posted on Jackson College’s website, Steve Tuckey, who serves as the Raven Endowed Chair for Mathematics and Engineering at Jackson, was quoted about the observatory as saying, “We are all astronomers whether we choose to pursue it as a field or not because you can’t help but notice things like that giant ball of plasma up there or at night, a little twinkling of the stars or you might see a satellite. All of that information is coming to us from through light through waves from the sky.”
One of the benefits of the observatory is that it is set up to allow for remote and automated viewing of the cosmos.
Next to the new observatory is a weather station which will allow Jackson College to protect the telescope in the event of inclement weather.
Tuckey went on to talk about the benefits of the telescope, saying, “If you’re really fortunate like we are, you can have a telescope that’s connected to the Internet and a system of computers with data storage. We can actually have the telescope kind of pre-programmed to point at a certain time. It can figure out where it has to point to be able to observe a certain star or nebula and to be able to open the shutters, point the telescope, gather the data and close the telescope.”
He went on to talk about how this will allow for the telescope to take photos and observe the sky overnight: “You can wake up in the morning and be able to see cool astrophotography that was taken place overnight. It’s going to be fabulous.”
The college also has plans to call for the capability to have more telescopes added to mounts on the nearby pad of the observatory where people can host and attend so-called star parties. Star parties are nighttime gatherings at which people observe the night sky. There is also a space in the observatory where a solar telescope can be added for daytime observations.
“The scale of the cosmos, the scale of the universe, to be able to sit at night and take a look at a star and know that the light that left that star started its journey to me, way before I was born, that is amazing. What I’m seeing is not just a place, but I’m also seeing time,” said Tuckey of the wonder provided by stargazing.
The difference between other nearby institutions and Jackson College’s astronomical observatory is its newness. Telescopes at other major research universities are as much as decades old, with updates along the way, but still locked into the past.
Tuckey talked about the newness of Jackson College’s telescope, saying, “This telescope is fabulous. It has a terrific, huge aperture that is going to allow us to gather a lot of light. You can think of a telescope as a big bucket that you point at the sky and it gathers light that comes in. The bigger the bucket you have, the more light you can gather. It’s also what you do with that light and how you process that light. We’re going to be able to do a lot of really cool astrophotography.”
Jeremy Frew, who serves as the Chief Academic and Student Services Officer at Jackson College, talked about how the school is looking to build a curriculum around the astronomical observatory, but notes that there is still a lot to be decided. Jackson College will offer physics and astronomy courses on Central Campus as well as in Adrian.
Jackson College has long been involved in the astronomical field. For instance, two alumni have gone on to explore outer space: Robert Freitag and James McDivitt.
McDivitt went on to become an American test pilot, United States Air Force pilot, aeronautical engineer, and a NASA astronaut in the Apollo project and the Gemini 4 mission.
Freitag worked on the Spacelab, Apollo-Soyuz, Gemini, and Mercury programs, and served at NASA until 1986.
Tuckey talked about the accessibility of astronomy, saying, “Astronomy is open to literally anyone. You go outside. There’s the sky. Everything that we know about what’s going through the sky. Everything that we know about what’s going on outside of our planet comes at us through the sky.”
Jackson College’s President Daniel Phelan talked in the article about his excitement of the addition of the observatory to the school’s resources. He noted that it will add to the roster of hands-on STEM education opportunities the institution already provides. He also mentioned that the observatory was made possible through the collaboration of many people.
Jackson College was awarded $377,000 by the Congressionally Funded Community Projects grant for the observatory project.
Phelan went on to talk about those who helped the project come to fruition, saying, “I thank Senator Gary Peters for his support of the federal funding which helped make this facility possible. We also intend to partner with other groups in our community to make full use of the telescope.”
Julie Hand, who serves as Jackson’s Chief Advancement Officer, noted that securing the funds allowed the school to buy and install image storage, an observatory management system, an all-sky camera, weather station and cloud sensors, academic telescopes, a spectrograph system, and install deep space and planetary cameras.
Sea West Enterprises, a company out of California and a global leader in the field, manufactured the dome, and acted as Jackson College’s Astronomical Systems Consultant.
Two dozen companies, many of whom are local to the school, were involved with the project, including construction company R.W. Mercer Co.
The astronomical observatory is located on the southeast portion of Central Campus next to the soccer field and education innovation center.
More information about Jackson College can be found at the school’s website.