Ron Henderson

Ron.Henderson@mtsu.edu

Ron Henderson

Physics & Astronomy

Discipline specific equipment

MTSU Observatory

N/A

N/A

The MTSU Observatory is a clearly recognizable silver domed building on the lawn of Wiser Patten Science. It houses a large optical telescope that supports courses taken by students from every college, and is a primary destination for off-campus visitors. Astronomical images travel from a digital camera on the telescope to a pair of 65” diagonal LCD displays on the north and east walls of the observatory for viewing. Astronomy 1030 (with lab) is among the most popular general education science options at MTSU and relies heavily on the observatory. The approximately 1000 students taking this course each year view galaxies, stars, Jupiter, Saturn, and the moon on these displays. In addition to serving many thousands of MTSU students, the observatory is used during First Friday Star Parties, K-12 visits, and major daytime public events including lunar eclipses, solar eclipses, and planetary transits. To date, more than 30,000 students and members of the public have viewed images with this equipment. The LCD displays are the only way for users to see images from the observatory telescope; the displays are ancient and nearly useless. The images are not in high definition (HD), and the level of brightness renders the displays unusable in the day and only minimally functional at night. We propose to replace the two LCD monitors, and install the infrastructure required to support HD image transmission. New and upgraded displays will greatly improve nighttime activities, and again enable daytime events.