With ETSU being a founding member institution of the Southeastern Association for Research in Astronomy (SARA), astronomers in the university’s Department of Physics and Astronomy have had access to a 36-inch diameter telescope at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona since 1995. However, only the northern hemisphere sky can be observed from that location. Now that sky coverage has doubled.The expansion of SARA’s membership from its four founding institutions recently led to the acquisition of a 24-inch diameter telescope located in the southern hemisphere, in the Andes Mountains of Chile at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory.

Joining ETSU in the organization are the Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne; Valdosta (Ga.) State University; Florida International University, Miami; Clemson (S.C.) University; Ball State University, Muncie, Ind.; Agnes Scott College, Decatur, Ga.; Valparaiso (Ind.) University; Butler University, Indianapolis; and the University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa.

Recognizing an opportunity to transform the observing capability of these facilities, ETSU astronomer Dr. Richard Ignace led the SARA consortium in seeking funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to equip the telescopes with new, custom-designed cameras and spectrographs. A grant from the NSF has been awarded in the amount of $382,000 for this purpose.

The two telescopes serve the research and educational missions of the SARA consortium members with everything from observing objects ranging from asteroids in Earth’s solar system to monitoring the most explosive events in the universe known as gamma-ray bursts.

ETSU astronomer Dr. Gary Henson has used the Kitt Peak telescope to study dying stars that pulsate, slowly expanding and contracting in the last stages of their lives.

Dr. Beverly Smith of ETSU has studied galaxies that interact during close passages in space, which typically lead to the creation of new generations of stars in the process.

“The addition of the southern telescope will essentially double the sky coverage available to ETSU astronomers, as well as those of other SARA institutions,” Ignace says. “In addition, the southern sky is important because the center of the Milky Way Galaxy is most visible there. Especially critical to the research effort will be the new equipment made possible by the grant from the NSF. The cameras will allow for much better quality digital imaging of the sky, and astronomers will be able to study the spectra of stars and galaxies with the SARA telescopes for the first time with the new spectrographs.”

Ignace explained that spectra are important because they allow astronomers to measure how things move in space. For example, he will use observations of spectra to study how stars drive streaming wind flows of atmospheric gases into space.

It is expected that the southern telescope will be ready for observing in October and that new instrumentation will be designed and installed by late spring 2010.

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