Located behind the West Building
on the northwest corner of the campus, just beyond the West Building and
the Bream/Wright/Hauser Athletic Complex, stands the Gettysburg College  Observatory.
Whether you are presently an astronomy enthusiast or not, you won't want to miss a chance
to view the heavens on one of the nights that the Observatory is open to the public
(call the "Astro Hotline" at 717-337-6031 to leave a message and/or receive
additional information - or join the Gettysburg College
Friends
of Astronomy!). If you take a course in astronomy at Gettysburg,
you will use one of the 8-inch reflecting telescopes at the Observatory
several times during the semester to familiarize yourself with the stars
and  the
planets. You will also have a chance to take pictures of the heavens using
the electronic CCD cameras that are installed on these telescopes. If you
take an upperclass lab in physics, you might do an exercise on the larger
research telescope located in the dome. And if you elect to do an upperclass
research project in astronomy, you will spend nights collecting data on
the College telescope or at the National Undergraduate Research Observatory
(NURO) in Flagstaff, Arizona.
The Observatory dome houses an Ealing 16-inch
Cassegrain telescope, a research quality instrument. The instrument is
operated by computer from a temperature-controlled room adjacent to the
dome. The telescope is equipped with a sensitive  CCD
camera that makes it possible to take pictures of faint celestial objects
and store them on computer disks.
The Observatory also contains
six Meade Telescopes: three 8-inch LX200 - Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes, one
10-inch GPS LX200 Telescope, one 8-inch GPS LX200 Telescope and one7-inch Maksutov-Cassegrain Telescope, with small CCD cameras that can be “wheeled”
around or mounted on concrete piers located next to the observatory. Another new
addition in operation for student advanced lab work is a
Haystack Radio Telescope. A classroom
adjacent to the dome contains work tables and a collection of maps and
charts of the skies to help in preparation for observing.
Keeping the Observatory active is an important
job. If you are at all interested in pursuing astronomy as a hobby or as
a career, you may want to volunteer your time to help around the Observatory.
You are welcome to sit in on observing when research is being done by faculty
and upper-class students, and you can help serve as an assistant for public
viewing nights. Assistants are also needed to help with introductory astronomy
labs, to develop and maintain software and hardware at the Observatory,
and to help process research data. If you are interested in helping, talk
with Dr.
Marschall. He will keep you informed of activities and can arrange
to help you learn what you need to know to participate in the astronomy
program.
Students working on undergraduate research
projects (most often in their junior and senior years) often use the Observatory.
In recent years, students have designed computer hardware and software
for it, and have used it to measure the physical properties of binary stars
that eclipse one another. Students have reported on their work at
national meetings of the American Astronomical Society. One previously
unknown eclipsing binary was actually discovered independently at the College
Observatory. Last year (1999), the
Asteroid
Patrol was established!
 Gettysburg
College is a member of the National
Undergraduate Research Observatory, mentioned above, a consortium of
colleges which operates a 32-inch telescope in Flagstaff, Arizona. Several
students in recent years have accompanied Dr. Marschall on research trips
to Flagstaff, where they have conducted studies of binary stars, supernovae,
and asteroids. Students in the past have also observed at the
Multiple
Mirror Telescope and the
Whipple
Observatory near Tucson, Arizona. If you are interested in working
on a project in astronomy, even if you are not sure of what precisely you
want to do, please see Dr. Marschall for information and suggestions. Both
senior research projects and short-term informal projects are encouraged.
For additional information on the Gettysburg
College Observatory, click
here.
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Guide to Physics
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