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New Keeler Telescope
The Keeler Dome now houses a fully automated 24" PlaneWave telescope.
(Photo Credit Lou Coban) -
Eclipse Research with Balloons
A team of students and researchers prepare for the next eclipse to study shadow bands.
(photo by Lou Coban) -
Pandora's Cluster of Galaxies
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ivo Labbe (Swinburne), Rachel Bezanson (University of Pittsburgh), Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
Astronomy Picture of the Day features Rachel Bezanson's work.
This deep field mosaicked image presents a stunning view of galaxy cluster Abell 2744 recorded by the James Webb Space Telescope's NIRCam. Also dubbed Pandora's Cluster, Abell 2744 itself appears to be a ponderous merger of three different massive galaxy clusters. It lies some 3.5 billion light-years away, toward the constellation Sculptor. Dominated by dark matter, the mega-cluster warps and distorts the fabric of spacetime, gravitationally lensing even more distant objects. Redder than the Pandora cluster galaxies many of the lensed sources are very distant galaxies in the early Universe, their lensed images stretched and distorted into arcs. Of course distinctive diffraction spikes mark foreground Milky Way stars. At the Pandora Cluster's estimated distance this cosmic box spans about 6 million light-years. But don't panic. You can explore the tantalizing region in a 2 minute video tour.
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Thaw Dome
The biggest dome houses the Thaw Memorial Refractor. It is used as a laboratory for student teams and is open to the public during the yearly Open House.
The Building
Built between 1900 and 1912 this neoclassical building was added to the National Register of Historic Places for significant contributions to astrometry. The three domes house the Thaw Memorial Refractor, the Keeler Telescope and the Fitz/Clark Refractor. All three are used for student projects and the Fitz/Clark Refractor is open to the public as part of the public and tour group program. The building is not open except through scheduled programming.