Sky & Telescope - April 2022 - 33

FAN MOUNTAIN OBSERVATORY: UVA / EDWARD MURPHY;
PLANETARIUM INTERIOR: AGNES SCOTT COLLEGE / TOM MEYER
120-seat planetarium. Then came National Science Foundation
funding and construction of the Rapid Response Robotic
Telescope (RRRT), now operational at Fan Mountain Observatory
in Covesville, Virginia, some 240 kilometers (150 miles)
northwest of the NSU campus. " The RRRT was originally built
to study gamma-ray burst afterglows, " says Salgado, " and is
now part of the SkyNet Robotic Telescope Network. "
Like historical observatories, the RRRT has multiple goals,
including training, research, and collaboration. The telescope
is now used by students at NSU, University of Virginia, and
the wider SkyNet community. Had the observatory been built
earlier, it might have been located on campus in the middle
of light-polluted Norfolk. In this sense, the NSU model is
very modern. With Salgado's efforts to reach out to both the
campus and broader communities, even a remote facility tells
students that the sky is theirs, too, even if they don't see very
many astronomers who look like them.
Having built a NASA-supported program that began offering
an astronomy minor in 2003, and supporting a significant
education and public-outreach program, Salgado has
helped remedy inequities that could contribute to Black students'
underrepresentation in astronomy. He points out, " As
the result of our high-school teacher training, the Virginia
Beach public school system now offers a class in astronomy. "
Yet HBCUs are conspicuously missing from the collegerank.net
online list, " The 35 Best College Astronomy
Observatories. " While it's impressive that current and former
women's colleges make the cut (Agnes Scott and Vassar colleges
land in the #19 and #27 spots, respectively), HBCUs like
North Carolina A&T State University, the University of the
Virgin Islands, and NSU do not. But they do have observatories
that can make a big difference in the lives of students
and the community. In 2014 Jedidah Isler, a graduate of the
NSU physics program, became the first African-American
woman to receive a PhD in astrophysics from Yale University.
And the first NSU physics major to graduate with an astronomy
minor, Cassy Smith, got her PhD in astronomy from
Georgia State University in 2015.
An Ongoing Mission
How have these observatories, old and new, remained relevant
in an age when high-resolution astronomical images are
released daily? How can a 100-year-old telescope in a brick
building at a small liberal arts college compete with the latest
NASA or ESA instruments orbiting Earth? Simple. By opening
their doors to visitors of all ages from the community to
answer their questions and fulfill a longing for personal connection.
By providing real, hands-on experiences to students,
and a place to carry out research and outreach activities.
And by putting the discoveries made both near and far into a
larger historical and societal context.
uSTARS, INDOORS Bradley Observatory's 70-seat planetarium is used
for teaching and outreach at monthly open-house events. In this photo,
visitors prepare for a planetarium show. The same space hosts live music
events twice a year for the William A. Calder Concert Series.
sk yand tele scope .o r g * APRIL 2022 33
AFTERGLOW OBSERVATORY The Rapid Response Robotic Telescope
(RRRT) of Norfolk State University is located at Fan Mountain Observatory
in Covesville, Virginia. The clam-shell dome in the foreground
houses a 24-inch Ritchey-Chrétien telescope that can be aimed at a
target in a matter of seconds.
College observatories also serve what may be an even
greater purpose, eliciting what Ukrainian education
researchers Galina Zhukova and Tetiana Bulgakova call
" planetary and cosmic thinking " - an awareness of the
scale of the universe and how Earth and the individual fit in.
" They expand a person's worldview from a regional and even
planetary scale to the perception of the self as a product of
cosmic processes, " the scholars wrote in a 2019 Philosophy
and Cosmology journal article. Even Maria Mitchell, who
was famously quantification-focused in her work and in her
teaching style, appreciated the more nebulous benefits of the
field. " We especially need imagination in science, " she once
said. " It is not all mathematics, nor all logic, but it is somewhat
beauty and poetry. "
Small observatories at colleges and universities bring
together students, faculty, and their surrounding communities
to show them the math, logic, beauty, and poetry of
the universe. We may now be sure the Milky Way is a spiral
galaxy, but plenty of unanswered questions remain for generations
to come.
¢ CHRIS DE PREE and SARAH SCOLES are co-authors of Astronomical
Mindfulness: Your Cosmic Guide to Reconnecting
with the Sun, Moon, Stars and Planets. De Pree also served
as the Charles A. Dana professor of astronomy at Agnes Scott
College and director of the Bradley Observatory for 25 years.
http://www.collegerank.net http://www.collegerank.net http://skyandtelescope.org
Sky & Telescope - April 2022

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