Students behind Aggie Village looking at stars
More than 200 USU students saw the rings around Saturn at a star party sponsored by the USU Society for Physics and the Astronomy Club on April 13. This sight may not be unusual to the many USU students who take advantage of the university’s observatory and telescopes, but it is one they may not soon forget.
James Coburn, teaching laboratory coordinator in the physics department, said stargazers are often excited after seeing Saturn for the first time. In fact, he first became interested in astronomy after viewing Saturn, he said.
“(Saturn) is definitely one of the neatest things to see,” said Jodie Tvedtnes, president of the USU Society of Physics.
Through Intelligent Life in the Universe (USU 1360) and Introductory Astronomy (Physics 1040) classes, numerous star parties and participation with the Astronomy Club, many students have taken advantage of USU’s telescopes and observatory, located on the northwest side of Aggie Village up the hill from Romney Stadium.
Coburn said the opportunity to actually use the telescopes helps to feel more connected to what they have learned about astronomy before.
“When you put your eye to the eyepiece, it’s real,” Coburn said. “It lets you look at it firsthand.”
Randy Dunning, president of the Astronomy Club and a senior math major, said, “It’s one thing to look at a Hubble (space telescope) image, and you can learn a lot from looking at that, but it’s a lot different to actually put your eye to a telescope and say that you saw light that exists two million light years away.”
The Astronomy Club, which was created this semester, gives students interested in the skies a place to share their common interest. The members plan events such as the recent star party to help others become involved, Dunning said.
The current observatory was donated to USU in the 1970s. It was brought back from California in a trailer by a group of USU students. Afterward, it was set up at its current site by the football stadium. However, the costs of the endeavor limited them during their building of the site.
“It was built on the cheap,” Coburn said. For example, to save money, the builders used golf balls as bearings for the observatory to rotate on, he said.
However, the cheap construction has given the observatory some problems. The golf balls crushed and don’t rotate as well as they originally did, and the roof does not work properly. Currently, people are only using telescopes instead of the large observatory, Coburn said.
The physics department is in the process of planning to build a new observatory that would improve on the current equipment, although there is no timetable for the construction. Coburn said the project has been in planning for about 10 years. To avoid surrounding light, the new observatory would likely be housed atop one of USU’s buildings, likely the Science Engineering Research building, Coburn said.
Instead of a 14-inch telescope like the current observatory has, the new one will feature a 16 or 20-inch telescope, Coburn said. The increase in size will allow in much more light, which would allow viewers to see galaxies and nebulas instead of just planets.
“If you want to look at a galaxy, a 20-inch (telescope) gets a lot more light and you see things with much more clarity,” Coburn said.
The new telescope would have a GPS system, allowing it to focus on certain locations, like the location of Mars. Additionally, it would have computer connections that would allow the telescope to be accessed remotely. Coburn said this would make it so distance education classes could direct the telescope and view its images, an opportunity they otherwise would not have.
The new site, which would also feature permanent ports for smaller telescopes, will give students and the physics department many more opportunities, Coburn said. The department may be able to offer more astronomy classes, and students may have the opportunity to do astronomy research projects with the new observatory, he said.
Coburn said those in the department hope the new observatory will allow even more students and members of the community to participate in astronomy. Dunning said he believes many people would enjoy participating.
“A lot of people who don’t even like science are drawn into astronomy,” Dunning said.
The study of the stars is a unique aspect of the study of physics. Tvedtnes said, “Study of the solar system and things outside the solar system gives people a whole new perspective.”
-tliljegren@cc.usu.edu