The Bangor High School Telescope is a deep space telescope with the  capability to look at objects within our galaxy and also objects that are millions of light years from Earth, well outside our Milky Way Galaxy home.  The telescope is about 9 feet long and has a 12 inch opening at the front. The large opening allows the telescope to take in a lot of light and see things that are too faint to be seen with smaller telescopes. Instead of lenses, this telescope has a large mirror to focus and magnify images.

The telescope sits on a state of the art computer controlled mount that uses software to point anywhere in the night sky.  Students view a representation of the night sky in the mount's software and the telescope will move to any object that is selected.  In addition, the telescope's mount corrects for the Earth's rotation so the object of interest is automatically tracked.

Very faint objects outside of our solar system can be photographed with a dedicated astronomical camera or a charge coupled device (CCD). The CCD uses millions of light-sensitive pixels to store an image which is then transferred to an awaiting computer. This tool allows imaging of objects too dim for our eyes to see. By keeping the shutter open or taking a long exposure, objects appear out of the darkness. The camera is so light sensitive it cannot take photos of the Moon or planets. Most common digital cameras use a type of CCD but the ones fitted for telescopes are much more advanced and can show many details that are impossible to see in ordinary photographs. The images taken with CCD’s are so advanced that the Hubble Space Telescope photos are taken with them.

When studying objects that are too bright for the CCD, students now have access to a lift which takes them up to the telescope's eyepiece.  From this perch, one can look directly through the scope and enjoy views of Jupiter and its moons, Saturn's rings, features on the Moon and even glimpses of the outer planets, Neptune and Uranus.

View some great pictures taken through the telescope by clicking on the link below!