Telescopes
The Observatory has four permanently mounted telescopes on site, and a collection of 12 portable telescopes used both on and off site. Open House events make use of the permanently mounted telescopes profiled below.
Celestron 14" Schmidt-Cassegrain Reflector
This telescope was purchased in 1983 by the Astronomy Department's Dr. Michael A'Hearn for use in asteroid occultation studies. The telescope, together with a high speed photometer and a timing reference, became a portable asteroid occultation observing system. For many years this system was used together with several similar portable systems to observe predicted asteroid occultations around the world. The C-14 is currently on loan from Dr. A'Hearn's group to the Astronomy Observatory for use in the Astronomy observing courses and for the public Open House.
Diameter of objective lens: 14 inches (355.6 mm)
Focal Length of objective lens: 154 inches (3912 mm)
Focal ratio: f/11
Magnifications:
40 mm eyepiece: 98 X
25 mm eyepiece: 156 X
18 mm eyepiece: 217 X
12.5 mm eyepiece: 313 X
6 mm eyepiece: 652 X