Photo above by Todd Bush

Appalachian State University's Dark Sky Observatory is the research facility used by faculty and their students to conduct observational research in astrophysics. Established in 1981, the observatory is located about 20 miles northeast of Boone at an elevation of a kilometer. Far from major cities, its dark skies provide a good setting for digital imaging and spectroscopy done in stellar and extragalactic research projects. With the planned opening of the Visitor Center a new public access program will bring viewing opportunities to everyone in our region.

We thank local photographer and amateur astronomer Todd Bush for providing the wonderful image at left, during a special evening at DSO. The Milky Way streams from the top of the 32-inch telescope's dome. You can even see the dark dust lanes in the Milky Way. Thanks, Todd!

Dark Sky Observatory receives award from North Carolina Space Grant for GRB/Exoplanet project

After becoming a new member of North Carolina Space Grant during last year's program expansion, ASU applied for funding for a new telescope project at its Dark Sky Observatory.

That project, Development of a Gamma Ray Burst Optical Afterglow Response Telescope with Background Exoplanet Search Mode, received a New Investigations award of $20,000.

A special telescope will be assembled at Appalachian State University’s Dark Sky Observatory to observe the afterglow of gamma ray bursts (GRBs). Those events are observed by NASA’s Swift satellite which automatically notifies a network of ground-based telescopes to observe the visible-light event that follows the gamma ray burst. Since only a few bursts happen per week the telescope will spend its idle time (while waiting for a GRB notification), searching for exopolanets (planets around other stars), by looking for drops in brightness when those planets come between us and their parent star.

Construction has just started, with the installation of a Paramount, borrowed from UNC-CH's PROMPT project, as shown at right. A Celestron-14 telescope will be used on this mount. The NC Space Grant funds primarily funded the purchase of an Apogee CCD camera, DFM Engineering filter wheel, and filters.

Related to this project, undergraduate major Adam Blythe Smith received one of the two PROMPT summer student fellowships. Adam will be at UNC-CH this summer learning the basics of GRBs, the PROMPT system, and how to implement the new system at our observatory.

Undergraduate student Nathan Bergey is also working the project, with his summer funding coming from NC Space Grant.

Observatory Engineer Lee Hawkins and undergraduate Nathan Bergey install the Paramount for the NC Space Grant GRB/Exoplanet telescope. Click on image for larger version.

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