Astronomy

Wheaton College is currently involved in a partnership with the Grove Creek Observatory in New South Wales, Australia, where one of Wheaton College's Meade LX200 12" telescopes has been installed.

This telescope has come to be known as "The Wheaton Telescope" as it can be operated remotely by Wheaton College observatory staff and students. When not being used by Wheaton College, the telescope is used by Grove Creek staff and visitors. The "Wheaton Telescope" at The Grove Creek Observatory offers some of its stunning images for online visitors to enjoy, too.

 

Over 2,000 undergraduate students have had hands-on experience using these telescopes in our astronomy courses. The Observatory is also open to the public on clear Friday nights, and several thousand visitors have looked through the telescopes in recent years.

Although the main purpose of the observatory is educational, we believe that having multiple telescopes equipped with CCD cameras also gives us unique research capabilities. We plan to do automated survey work on projects including simultaneous UBVRI asteroid photometry, mosaic survey work for supernovae in the Virgo Galaxy Cluster, and rapid follow-up of gamma ray burster reports. We are very interested in collaborating with others on these and similar projects.

Several Wheaton students and graduates have been crucial to the development of the Wheaton College Observatory: Spencer Zawasky '93, Scott Hesser '01, former Departmental Assistant Lori Agan '98, former Departmental Assistant Deb Banks '92, James Eberhart '03, Departmental Assistant Jon McBee '04, Jon Burkle '04 and Abbie Sewall '06.

We are grateful for support from the National Science Foundation ILI Program, the American Astronomical Society Small Research Grant Program, and the Bojan Hamlin Jennings faculty chair which allowed us to purchase our latest additional telescope, the Centurion.

For Physics opportunities outside Wheaton College, visit the American Institute of Physics website.