January 15, 2003
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Since opening its doors 50 years ago, Vanderbilt’s Arthur J. Dyer Observatory has introduced thousands of Nashvillians to the world of astronomy through school tours, public observation nights and other community programs.
Now, thanks to a new mission and several recent gifts, the observatory, which is located on a hilltop in the Nashville area, is moving its public outreach efforts to a whole new level. Its new mission is to serve as a science education and communications center for the area. The gifts have given it the capacity to allow students and fellow stargazers to control some of its telescopes from the comfort of their classroom or home over the World Wide Web.
“The observatory is a unique place of science and provides a perfect setting for strengthening the connection between the public and the scientific community,” says Rick Chappell, director of science and research communications in Public Affairs and research professor of physics, who took over as the observatory’s director last summer.
In the fall of 2001, the Astronomical League selected Dyer as the control center for an ambitious project to provide U.S. students in K-12 with access to a network of remotely operated telescopes sited around the globe, and possibly on the international space station as well. This has provided the observatory with the computer power and the communications required to operate a remotely controlled telescope in the mountains of Arizona.
SunGlow Ranch in Arizona has given a remotely operated telescope mount to Dyer and the Astronomical League that will allow the observatory to mount its solar telescope, giving Dyer and the league project both day-and-night remote observing capability.
In addition, LiveWave, Inc. – a leading developer of advanced digital video security and broadcast systems for corporate and government clients – has given Dyer and the Astronomical League its Web broadcasting system. The system gives the observatory the ability to control its telescopes over the Internet and broadcast both images from the telescope and video of the telescope operations over the Web. During the Christmas holidays, the observatory tested out the system by producing two live webcasts, one showing the surface of the sun and the other showing the planet Saturn and its rings. Both productions showed not only the image through the telescope’s eyepiece, but also video of the historic, Seyfert telescope in operation.
A new collaboration with astronomers at Tennessee State University will also be enhancing Dyer’s Web presence. With support from NASA, TSU and Vanderbilt have formed a partnership to add a new remotely operated telescope at the observatory for the use of both TSU and Vanderbilt students. TSU Professor Michael Busby and Dyer Superintendent Rocky Alvey are currently developing an automated housing system for the new instrument. It will include a weather detection system and will automatically deploy the telescope in favorable weather conditions. When the design is completed, it will be used for the TSU and Dyer solar telescopes, allowing remotely controlled observations of the sun and stars.
“We have room to add up to six of these remotely controlled telescopes on the observatory roof in the future,” Alvey says.
The Dyer staff has also begun collaborating with TSU on a science education program. Working with Professor Todd Gary, director of the Institute for Understanding of Biological Systems, and Judy Butler, the institute’s director of education and community outreach, the observatory has hosted two workshops for middle school teachers about ways to bring astronomy and space exploration into the classroom. A third workshop is scheduled for June, funded by a $30,000 grant from the state of Tennessee for improving teacher quality.
The observatory will also serve as the host for a series of videoconferences on space exploration that will be beamed to classrooms around the country as the result of an additional collaboration with Virginia Shepherd, professor of pathology at Vanderbilt. The videoconferences are part of a federally funding science education program that she directs.
Media contact: David Salisbury, 615-343-6803, david.salisbury@vanderbilt.edu