New Australia telescope gathers light from dark skies

On Friday, October 19, several Rose-Hulman students joined Professor Richard Ditteon in the demonstration of the capabilities of the new Oakley Southern Sky Observatory in New South Wales, Australia. Students, staff and faculty passing through the commons area in Moench hall were able to catch a glimpse of images of the sky as visible only from the southern hemisphere.

After nearly two years of planning and construction and approximately $200,000 invested, the 20-inch diameter telescope and its facilities are fully operational. Until now, students affiliated with astronomy at Rose-Hulman have been utilizing the eight telescopes located in the Oakley Observatory on the east side of campus, the largest of which measure 14 inches.

In addition to the increased aperture size, the new telescope offers the advantage of clear, dark skies due to the low light pollution and lack of cloud cover in Australia. Also, students may observe during the daytime, when it is dark in Australia; the telescope controls, as well as the opening and closing of the roof, can all be accessed remotely by Rose-Hulman faculty and students.

During Friday’s demonstration, students of the Introduction to Astronomy class were able to slew the telescope and direct the camera to take images of several exotic objects, including planetary nebulae, star clusters, and galaxies. Also obtained were images of nebulae in the nearby Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, some of the closest neighboring galaxies to the Milky Way. These objects, as well as countless others, can be viewed using Rose-Hulman’s facilites for the first time.