{"id":28359,"date":"2013-12-18T10:14:13","date_gmt":"2013-12-18T17:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stage.headlessnauedu-b6hgdzckfdgxgzhe.westus-01.azurewebsites.net\/?p=28359"},"modified":"2013-12-18T14:27:47","modified_gmt":"2013-12-18T21:27:47","slug":"access-powerful-new-telescope-raises-visibility-nau-astronomy-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/access-powerful-new-telescope-raises-visibility-nau-astronomy-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Access to powerful new telescope raises visibility of NAU astronomy program"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Northern Arizona University became a formal partner in Lowell Observatory\u2019s Discovery Channel Telescope at a contract signing Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>The five-year partnership will result in about 80 nights of observation time for NAU astronomers, beginning in January. The telescope, commissioned in July, is the fifth largest in the continental United States.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis represents an important regional partnership and is a huge boost for our astronomy program,\u201d said NAU President <b>John Haeger<\/b>, who signed the documents along with observatory trustee Lowell Putnam.<\/p>\n<p><b>Stephen Tegler<\/b>, chair of Physics and Astronomy at NAU, will have his first opportunity to use the telescope in February. He and associate professor <strong>David Trilling<\/strong>, who has viewing time scheduled for January, will search the Kuiper Belt at the periphery of the solar system. The large-aperture telescope is ideal for producing excellent images of faint objects.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_28371\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-28371\" style=\"width: 450px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-28371\" alt=\"Discovery signing\" src=\"http:\/\/stage.headlessnauedu-b6hgdzckfdgxgzhe.westus-01.azurewebsites.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/discovery2.jpg\" width=\"450\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/402\/2013\/12\/discovery2.jpg 450w, https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/402\/2013\/12\/discovery2-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-28371\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Present at the signing were, seated from left: Lowell Director Jeff Hall; Lowell Trustee Lowell Putnam; and NAU President John Haeger. Standing, from left: Paul Jagodzinski, dean for the College of Engineering, Forestry and Natural Sciences; Mike Kitt, Lowell advisory board member; Steve Tegler, professor of physics and astronomy; Deidre Hunter, Lowell astronomer and deputy director for science; Lowell advisory board member Mike Beckage; and Provost Laura Huenneke.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThe Discovery Channel Telescope provides an entirely new research capability for us,\u201d Tegler said. \u201cMost astronomers in the United States will get a couple of nights per year on a telescope this size. There are not many universities that have this kind of access.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tegler said the partnership opens new opportunities for hands-on teaching, which he called a highlight of NAU\u2019s approach to science education. \u201cThe way you become a scientist is by apprenticeship,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen students see they have access to this kind of facility, that\u2019s a very big motivator.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The telescope is located about 40 miles southeast of Flagstaff at Lowell Observatory\u2019s Happy Jack site.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"search-results-excerpt-link\" href=\"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/access-powerful-new-telescope-raises-visibility-nau-astronomy-program\/\">Northern Arizona University became a formal partner in Lowell Observatory\u2019s Discovery Channel Telescope at a contract signing Tuesday. The five-year partnership will result in about 80 nights of observation time for NAU astronomers, beginning in January. The telescope, commissioned in July, is the fifth largest in the continental United States. \u201cThis represents an important regional&hellip;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":28367,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[129,375,41,552,207,38,24,553],"class_list":["post-28359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-academics","tag-david-trilling","tag-discovery-channel-telescope","tag-john-haeger","tag-kuiper-belt","tag-lowell-observatory","tag-nau","tag-northern-arizona-university","tag-stephen-tegler"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}