Facilities

Telescopes

• The 24 inch Perkin research telescope.
• The 20 inch Alvan Clark great refractor.
• The 16 inch Meade LX200GPS Schmidt-Cassegrain.

Offsite at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona we participate in a consortium of universities that operate the WIYN 0.9m telescope. Students and faculty have the opportunity to use our time on this telescope for their research.

Computing resources

Students have use of our computer lab in the department to assist in their research and classwork. We maintain a network of UNIX, MacOS X and Windows workstations in this lab and in locations throughout the observatory. A range of research software including IRAF, IDL, SuperMongo and many programming languages are supported on these machines as well as the popular desktop tools such as Photoshop, MS Office, and Starry Night sky simulator. The department employs a full-time computer support person onsite to address any issues with the machines as well as answer questions and teach students how to use them.

Onsite research library

Van Vleck Observatory houses a research library holding the past and present volumes of most of the major astronomical journals and catalogs. We also hold publications of Van Vleck Observatory, the full collection of the Palomar Sky Survey charts, historical documents, and bound copies of all graduate student theses. Current and back issues of popular astronomy magazines are also held for student and faculty use. The majority of our substantial astronomical collection is housed at the Wesleyan Science Library, a short distance from the observatory.

Multimedia classroom

The Observatory has a classroom that is equiped with modern instructional tools that allow for dynamic presentations of course material. Available in the classroom is a carousel slide projector, astronomical globes and orrery, VCR, DVD player, overhead projector, MacOS X and Windows XP computers, and docking station for laptops all with internet access and multiple projection options.

Portable Planetarium

In 1997 we aquired a portable planetarium, in collaboration with the PIMMS program. STARLAB is used to as a teaching tool in our introductory courses and is transported to interested education programs for use with their students. Teachers that attend the PIMMS summer instructional course can arrange to borrow the STARLAB for use with their students.