The telescopes of the McConnell Rooftop Observatory (latitude 42:19:02 N, longitude 72:38:22 W) at the Clark Science Center are in use by students every clear night during the academic year and in public stargazing sessions each semester. We have four courses dedicated to astronomical observing with telescopes: AST 103, AST 113, AST 337, AST 341.
Our two large computer-controlled telescopes, each in separate housing with permanent mounts, are a 16-inch Meade LX200 ACF Schmidt-Cassegrain and a 12-inch Meade LX200 Schmidt-Cassegrain. We have a portable 10-inch Meade RCX 400, kindly donated by Aimee Girard ’10. Our latest addition is a 10-inch Dobsonian Newtonian telescope, a generous gift from Mr. Barry Sussman. We also have eight portable 8-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes that can be set up on rooftop-observing platforms, and another eight at the MacLeish Field Station in Whately. Our instrumentation for data acquisition includes two 2K x 3K SBIG CCD cameras with standard UBVRI sets of astronomical filters for color imaging and seven Canon DSLR cameras for astrophotography, funded in part by a gift from John Hayward in honor of Jo Ann Lord Hayward ’51.
For solar viewing we have the Lisa Abrams ’90 Coronado SolarMax 90 scope, equipped with a special red filter for viewing flares and erupting prominences through the light of hot hydrogen gas, along with a pair of Coronado Personal Solar Telescopes with a red hydrogen and a blue calcium filter.
We have guaranteed observing time on the WIYN 0.9m telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, used for student observing both in AST 341 and for independent research. Other FCAD telescopes include the Amherst College Wilder Observatory, with an 18-inch refractor; the UMass Orchard Hill Observatory 16-inch; and the Williston Observatory 24-inch reflector at Mount Holyoke.
