Capacity Building Partnership in Research and Education for Space Science (PRESS)

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Facilities and Telescopes

Facilities for Space and Earth Science Programs

The Three College Observatory: The Three College Observatory, located at a dark-sky location in central North Carolina, contains a 0.81-meter reflecting telescope, one of the largest in the southeastern United States. The observatory opened in 1981 and is used for astronomical research, instruction of area college students, and sky observing by interested persons in the community. The Observatory is operated jointly by The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, North Carolina A & T State University, and Guilford College. All three universities are located in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Marteena Hall Observatory: This observatory is located on the roof of Marteena Hall, and it is maintained and operated by students and astronomy instructors. Mateena Hall also houses a planetarium with highly interactive features. The planetarium is instrumental in attracting K-12 students to the open house. NC A&T recently hosed astronomy related outreach activities based on the two recent solar eclipses in Africa.

Natural Science Museum: This museum is located in downtown Greensboro. It is a museum of natural history as well as a place where Astronomy related activities are talking place. It is frequented by school children and parents making it an ideal place for Earth and Space Science Outreach.

Facilities at other UNC Campuses

UNC-Chapel Hill

Southern Observatory for Astrophysical Research, Chile: The SOAR Telescope project was initiated by UNC in order to further astrophysical research by its faculty and students, and as an aid in teaching and public outreach. The telescope is designed to produce the best image quality of any ground-based telescope, and in the near infra-red should rival the Hubble.

Southern African Large Telescope: In the coming years, SALT will be built to become the largest single telescope in the southern hemisphere, with a hexagonal mirror array 11 metres across. SALT will be able to record distant stars, galaxies and quasars a billion times too faint to be seen with the unaided eye - as faint as a candle flame at the distance of the moon.

Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute: This Research Institute is a not-for-profit public found at dedicated to providing research and educational access to radio and optical astronomy for a broad cross-section of users. Pre-college through post-graduate students have the opportunity to work and learn with full time and visiting astronomers.

Morehead Observatory Chapel- Hill NC: The astronomical observatory atop the Morehead Observatory houses a 0.6m (24") professional Perkin-Elmer telescope. Chapel Hill is not Chile or even Arizona, but skies can often be clear enough for graduate and undergraduate students to obtain useful data and experience that helps them prepare to use research instruments at national observatories.

SOLAR Observatory Chapel Hill, NC: The SOLAR project is an outreach program of the Morehead Observatory. Students literally control the Morehead Observatory telescope and camera using either a modem or an Internet connection from their classroom computers.