Extra Credit Ast 111

Astronomy

Eric Puffenberger

Astronomy 111

Puffe1ep@cmich.edu

Astronomy Extra Credit

The type of telescope that is in use in the brooks observatory is a Cassegrain reflecting telescope. This telescope has a 16-inch mirror to go along with it to reflect the light. The mounting of the telescope allows it to track objects in the sky because it is a fork mount, which allows the telescope to move 360 degrees to find objects in the sky. I find it extremely interesting that technology has allowed us to track stars or even planets through the sky. The electronic camera that is used with the cassegrain reflecting telescope is a CCD camera, charge-couple device. This camera allows anyone to take a picture through filters because of the layers that the CCD has in it, meaning that the different colors can allow us to take pictures with different filters. Using different lens comes in handy when looking through the telescope and not being able to see the object because of the color. Most of the people to operate the telescope are master’s students, the professors, and undergrads that are in high-level astronomy classes. The most recent project that the high-level astronomy students have done is track the speed of asteroids through the asteroid belt. A few extra facts about the telescope: The Focal Length of the telescope is 4875 with a 40mm eyepiece; also, the magnification is 120-125 times the magnification compared to the human eye. That is a huge difference between using a human eye to find objects in the sky, or using a high power telescope to locate stars/planets/nebulas and observing them.