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The telescope is open on Saturday evening, if the skies are clear. Graduate students and astronomers from the Department of Physics & Astronomy will show visitors many celestial sights that are above the horizon including the rings of Saturn, craters on the Moon, Jupiter's moons, star clusters, nebulae and galaxies; the objects shown on a given night varied with the seasons & the lunar phase.
The telescope will open on Saturday nights from approximately 1 hour after sunset and will remain open for about 3 hours. Although the open times change greatly, typical observing times in January run from ~6:00pm until 9:00 pm. Typical summer hours are from ~9:00pm to midnight. Those interested can call 822-6186 for recorded information, and people can find out if the telescope is open.
NOTE : The telescope dome is not heated, so in the winter months people should dress warmly!
Admission : FREE
Location : Access through South
door of Geophysics Building; 2219 Main Mall
Phone (recorded message):
822-6186
Prediction for Sat, 2007-06-23 ( made on Wed, 2007-06-20T1430): telescope will be closed ( clouds ).
The UBC telescope in its dome, with the crescent Moon in the background.
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Atop the Earth & Ocean Sciences East building, we have a 42 cm telescope which is used for public observing, undergraduate teaching and instrument development. This instrument was obtained from Sigma Research with monies provided by the BC Science Council. |
What is in the sky this week? Check out Sky & Telescope's Almanac
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As the accompanying diagram shows, the telescope
is mounted with an equatorial German design with 2 focii.
The Cassegrain focus is at f/13.5 and provides a field of 0.5 degrees. There is also a 4 mirror Coude train which brings the focus to the floor below at f/57. A focal reducer can change this to a speed of f/18.
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| webster@astro.ubc.ca | Last revised: 2007-06-19 |