---

BY MARY PRAGER

In print | August 26, 2008

Four years after the opening of the $74 million Science Center, the college has fulfilled one of its ambitions for the astronomy department by installing the new Peter van de Kamp Observatory. On Aug. 15, a crane lowered a shiny silver dome atop a small room adjacent to the astronomy observatory deck on the roof of the Science Center. Within the next few months, the installation of a research-grade telescope will complete the observatory, setting Swarthmore’s astronomy facilities on par with those of rival institutions nationwide.

According to Assistant Professor of Astronomy David Cohen, the installation of this telescope has been in the plans all along. “The dome is new but that rectangular room that it’s on has been there ever since the building was built, because the college knew that one way or another, we would eventually have a telescope.”

The rectangular room that will house the telescope is vibrationally isolated from the rest of the building. Adjacent to the room is the control room, where professors, astronomers and students will be able to adjust the telescope and examine data using sophisticated computers and equipment.

Funding for the new observatory comes from three sources. A National Science Foundation grant covers the cost of the telescope, as well as pay for student researchers. An anonymous donation by an alumna made in the name of former astronomy professor and director of the Sproul Observatory Peter van de Kamp funds the dome. Finally, the Astronomy Department’s “Scientific Equipment Fund” pays for computers and other specialized equipment to be used in conjunction with the telescope, Cohen said in an e-mail.

According to Cohen, the astronomy department began the process of applying for a grant from the National Science Foundation five or six years ago. “Our goal for a long time has been to develop a facility here … where students who want to get involved in astronomical research here on campus have modern equipment, a modern telescope, to do that research,” Cohen said.

After three attempts, Professor of Astronomy Eric Jensen and Cohen succeeding in winning a $310,109 grant from the NSF to “acquire a 0.6-meter research telescope … which will be used with a separately-funded camera and spectrograph for faculty and student research.”

For many, the arrival of the new telescope is a long-awaited event. Colin Schimmelfing ’10, an astronomy major, has been anticipating the research-grade telescope ever since last summer, when, while working on an astronomy-related computer program with Professor Eric Jensen, he happened to spot an invoice left in the printer for an expensive new telescope. He remembers feeling really excited, especially for the “amazing” spectroscopy device. “Hopefully I’ll be able to take data with it to use over the summer. Maybe I’ll find something no one else has.”

Zach Sinemus ’10, who plans to major in Astronomy and Philosophy, is also looking forward to using the telescope. “It’d be great if we actually get to use the observatory … Especially since it means we won’t have to be outside in freezing weather to look at the sky,” he said in an e-mail.

Both astronomy majors are likely to use the telescope in the future, for it is especially suited for advanced labs and research. “Students will work on big ongoing research projects that the astronomy professors already have under way, and we’ll hire students to make observations and analyze data,” Cohen said.

The telescope will particularly serve those who plan to pursue graduate degrees in astronomy. “Maybe half our majors go on to grad school, and most astronomy grad students have to go or get to go observing in places like Arizona and California and Hawaii and Chile, which are sort of the four main places where there are big telescopes, and when our graduates get to those telescopes in major observatories, we want them to have had experience using a modern telescope … with a modern computer control system and a modern camera and modern instrumentation,” Cohen said.

However, underclassmen and incoming students shouldn’t anticipate extensive use of the new telescope — at least not immediately. “Probably Astro 1 students will be able to use the telescope too, for something recreational, like looking at Saturn,” Cohen said, “but we’re not sure how useful it will be for intro level courses.”

Lauren Cardenas ’12, an incoming first-year, hadn’t heard about the new observatory before arriving at Swat, but plans to take astronomy classes at the college. “I think that’s pretty sweet to have all these new resources,” she said.

Currently, the biggest telescope on campus resides in Sproul Observatory. Astronomers and those pursuing astronomy master’s degrees in the 1950s often used the older telescope. In order to collect data, students had to expose a photographic plate coated with chemicals to light for hours, develop the plate in a darkroom, and use a magnifying glass to examine the stars. Although this telescope was obsolete for modern research, the department began opening it up every second Tuesday to allow community members to peer at faraway stellar bodies in the night sky.

Astronomy students have been using relatively small, portable telescopes for their nighttime observations on the observation deck atop the Science Center. However, professors have had to travel to other institutions and locations across the world to conduct up-to-date research. With the new telescope, professors and astronomers from all over the nation will be able to conduct their own research at the college.

Whether the Peter van de Kamp Observatory will draw more students into the astronomy department, nobody can be sure. “I hope that it’ll bring more people into the astronomy fold, because it’s not a very visible department,” Schimmelfing said.

The Peter van de Kamp Observatory is LEED-certified, which means it has been examined by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and deemed an “environmentally responsible, profitable and healthy place to live and work.”

---

« RETURN TO NEWS

« PREV ARTICLE | NEXT ARTICLE »