The Automated Telescope Facility Upgrade Project

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This project continues to develop the highly successful Automated Telescope Facility (ATF) at the University of Iowa. The ATF program is an innovative new approach to the teaching of observational astronomy in undergraduate laboratories. It allows students access to modern astronomical instrumentation using Web and Windows-based user-friendly interfaces for schedule preparation, image display, and analysis. The ATF is primarily used to teach undergraduate students how to conduct scientific research in observational astronomy. More than 700 students utilize this facility every year. The ATF allows a large number of students to schedule observations of astronomical targets such as planets, stars, and galaxies. The students plan all details of the observations, submit observing requests, and analyze the resulting images shortly after they are taken. The project significantly enhances the capabilities of the ATF in four ways. o It replaces the existing CCD Camera with a newer model with much better thermal stability and spectral sensitivity. o It adds a spectrograph, which will allow measurements of stellar spectra for the first time. o It adds a faster telescope control computer, allowing faster disks and better tracking. In addition, it adds three additional workstations for use by upper-level undergraduates in advanced laboratory course. o It adds a writeable CD-ROM for archiving the image database generated by the ATF.