ETSU PHYSICS, ASTRONOMY, AND GEOLOGY FACILITIES

The Harry D. Powell Observatory, located on Narrow Lane on the hill behind campus, was completed in Fall 1997. The ETSU Observatory houses a 0.36-m Celestron, and has an outdoor pad with eight mounts for eight 0.20-m Meade telescopes. The Meade telescopes are equipped with Lynx cameras and computers. The ETSU Observatory is used for the Astronomy classes as well as research in astronomy. Instruments which are available include a low resolution spectrograph, several Optec photometers, and an ST-6 CCD camera.

The Southeastern Association for Research in Astronomy Observatory (SARA) is located on Kitt Peak, Arizona near Tucson. The SARA Observatory houses a 0.9-m telescope. Equipment available at the focal plane includes a 2048 x 2048 AXIOM CCD camera (with UBVRI and Stromgren filters) and a low dispersion (about 5 Angstrom resolution) spectrograph. The Observatory was dedicated on January 7, 1995 and has been in nearly constant use since then. The SARA Observatory can be remotely operated over the internet from ETSU. ETSU has about 20% of the available observing time on the telescope.

The ETSU Planetarium

The ETSU Physics Department also has a Planetarium. The planetarium is located on the top floor of Hutcheson Hall, room 271. It has seating capacity for 50 people. Shows are given to various groups and public shows are given every third Thursday of the month.