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Mount Allison University expands its view of space with new telescope

Courtesy: Catherine Lovekin
Courtesy: Catherine Lovekin
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Calling it the first of its kind for Mount Allison Gemini Observatory, the university in Sackville, N.B., is getting ready to introduce a brand new telescope to its program.

“It’s kind of like a little dog house almost that contains a telescope that’s fully automated and so when the weather’s good it has cloud sensors and rain sensors, it can tell when it’s clear, it will just open up and be able to take pictures,” said the head of physics for Mount Allison Gemini Observatory, Catherine Lovekin.

The observatory received a grant through the Walker Wood Foundation to help cover the equipment and the university is also providing funding to make it possible.

“The grant was $23,000 and we’re spending most of that on the telescope itself,” she said. “The university has kindly chipped in. One of the requirements was that we needed continuous power source at the observatory and an internet connection.”

Lovekin says, if all goes according to plan, the observatory will be upgraded this summer to include internet and continuous power with the robot telescope up and running in time for the September semester.

With the new addition, she says the space is temporarily being called the “mini robotic observatory.”

Currently, the observatory has two telescopes, but Lovekin says this new one will really compliment the equipment that is already in place.

“Right now we have two 11 inch diameter telescopes, which at lowest magnification have a field of view about the size of the full moon, which is good and we can see lots of amazing things, […] but there are things that we can’t really get a picture of. We can’t fix the entire Andromeda galaxy in our current telescopes field of view, or we can’t fit the Pleiades in our field of view and those are things that are really interesting to look at.”

Picture of m51that students took a couple of weeks ago with one of the 11 inch telescopes. (Courtesy: Catherine Lovekin)

That’s where the new telescope comes in.

“This smaller telescope will have a much larger field of view because it’s smaller so you won’t get as much detail, but you’ll be able to see more of the sky,” she said.  

Lovekin adds it will also be easier for students to make observations and monitor it overnight since it will be hooked up to the internet.

However, the goal is for the new telescope to benefit more than just university students.

“I’ve wanted for a while to do things to get the observatory more accessible to the community because one of the nice things about this is we can also get high school students or just interested community members can get accounts and take pictures with this telescope,” said Lovekin.

The plan is that anybody will be able to register for a free account and use the telescope to take pictures. However, she says it will be based on priority and students looking to do a project for class will get first dibs. 

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