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Outreach |
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Information |
 UCI Observatory 24" Telescope Most of the images shown below were taken with this telescope:  The Ring Nebulae, a planetary nebula. The gas that forms a shell around the central star was ejected from the star when it died and evolved to become a white dwarf star.  M13, a globular star cluster in the Milky Way, containing over 100,000 stars that were formed approximately 14 billion years ago when star formation in the Milky Way had just begun.  Visitor Night at the Observatory during one of the "100 Hours of Astronomy" events in April, 2009 to celebrate the International Year of Astronomy.  The planet Saturn and its rings.  Comet 17P/Holmes in a color image produced from combining images taken on Nov 11, 2007, using BVR filters that transmit light at different wavelengths. In this image, stars that appear redder are cooler and stars that appear bluer are hotter than stars that appear white.  The Orion Nebula, a nearby star- forming region in the Milky Way. The gas is ionized by a group of bright, massive stars located inside the cloud.  An image of the Full Moon taken with a digital camera (without a telescope) at the UCI Observatory just prior to the total lunar eclipse on Aug 27, 2007, by Gar Travis. |
Introduction The observatory's main computer-controlled f/8 telescope has a 24-inch primary mirror and 8.5-inch secondary mirror. The telescope is operated in person or remotely via the ethernet with a LINUX-based control program called UCIROB which was written by Professor Tony Shoup. Installed at the Cassagrain focus are a variety of eyepieces, an electronic camera, and a spectrograph. People can view astronomical objects such as planets, star clusters, planetary nebulae and galaxies with the eyepieces. Scientific observations are made with an imaging camera or spectrograph. Our imager is an SBIG ST-9XE CCD camera with a field-of-view of 7 arcmin x 7 arcmin, and we can guide extremely well with an SBIG Adaptive Optics Module using the Tracking CCD on the ST-9XE while imaging with the Science CCD. We use an SBIG ST-6 CCD behind an 5-inch telescope (the orange telescope mounted on the side of the main telescope in the picture above) as a finding scope with a 25' x 19' field of view. We also have an SBIG Self-Guiding Spectrograph, which images
the light reflected off the slit to automatically keep the star
centered on the slit. The spectrograph detector is an SBIG ST-8E CCD,
which provides us with spectra at high resolution with a dispersion of
1.1 Angstrom/pixel and a wavelength coverage of 1640 Angstrom or low
resolution with a dispersion of 4.3 Angstrom/pixel and a wavelength
coverage of 6550 Angstrom.
Public Access
We host Visitor Nights, which are open to the general public, approximately 5 times per year. Click on the links below to get a poster or detailed information about the next Vistior Night, driving directions, parking instructions, etc. To add or delete your name to the email list to receive notices for upcoming Visitor Nights, simply send an email to uciobs@uci.edu with the words "Subscribe" or "Unsubscribe" as the Subject. We also give tours of the UCI Observatory for scouts or school groups. If you need any other information, please contact the director of the UCI Observatory, Dr. Tammy Smecker-Hane (tsmecker@uci.edu).
2009 was declared the
International Year of Astronomy by UNESCO and the IAU. We would
like to expand the number of Vistior Nights at the Obsevatory this
year. Each Visitor Night costs approximately
$2,000
for shuttle bus rental, handouts, and the salaries of the graduate and
undergraduate student volunteers. If you and your family appreciate
Visitor Nights and want to see our program expand then we need
your
financial support. We thank you for your help!
Donations
to Support Visitor Nights:
Education & Outreach
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| http://www.physics.uci.edu/~observat
last editted on Apr 16, 2009 T. Smecker-Hane (tsmecker@uci.edu) |
Department
of Physics & Astronomy University of California, Irvine |