Astronomy students at all levels study the universe using the unique capabilities of the Wheaton Observatory. Beginning with small 4-inch scopes, and working their way up to computer-controlled 14-inch scopes, our students gain a wealth of hands-on astronomy experience. Over 2,000 undergraduate students have used our telescopes in 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.
The observatory serves both educational and research purposes. Multiple telescopes equipped with CCD cameras give us unique research capabilities, including automated survey work, 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 on these and similar projects.
International Student Highlight: Yusheng Wu
Take a look at one of our international students here at Wheaton majoring in Physics and Bioinformatics.
Small Telescope, Big Discovery
With Wheaton’s rooftop telescope, hard work and good luck, Maitra and Scarpaci ’17 make a discovery that challenges prior assumptions about black holes. With this…
Finding heavy metal
Professor John Collins and his collaborator Ivan Karbovnyk from the Ukraine have been awarded a grant from CRDF Global to study nanomaterials that could help…