Student Research

If you are interested in working with the telescope or the observatory please talk to your physics faculty, join the physics club, and come to the open observing night. Some options include:

• becoming one of the student guides for public observing: learn to work with the dome and telescope, be able to speak about some of the features of the telescope, run open nights.

• become a photographer. Learn to work the CMOS camera and the software, collect cool images of various sky objects.

• working on the remote control for the telescope: build the RS232/USB connection, write wrapper code to control the motion of the telescope and collect images; discuss the feasibility of a smart dome

• working on image processing software. There are many challenges in the postprocessing of images

• artist work: astrophotography and great sky images require art as much as technical knowledge. Many of the great photos you see have been stacked, filtered, and colored in the postprocessing.

• Astronomical research projects: may include the search for exoplanets, supernovae, and other observationally accessible data from the camera. Will require planning, observing, and programming.