The GoTo Astronomy Laboratory Facility

个人电脑、CCD成像仪以及最近计算机控制的GoTo望远镜的发展，极大地扩展了普通大学生所能进行的定性和定量观测的种类。这些功能强大但非常用户友好的设备现在为天文学提供了机会，可以匹配甚至超过其他科学的实验室经验。除了这些新开发的硬件之外，还有许多优秀的天文图像处理软件包，可以从这些数字图像中提供分析数据。该大学的GoTo天文实验室设施包括一个室内实验室，配备了18个计算机站，每个计算机站由两名学生组成的团队操作。该设施的核心是相邻的户外观景台，上面有18个永久安装的10英寸望远镜，每个望远镜都配备了STV CCD相机。每个望远镜都连接到一个计算机站，以允许图像下载，但这也允许在室外条件过于恶劣而无法长时间在甲板上时进行室内望远镜和相机控制。CCD相机通过一个永久安装的VISTA（视觉成像和光谱望远镜适配器）连接到望远镜，该适配器包含一个翻转镜，允许直接观看和成像。它还有一个集成的衍射光栅/圆柱透镜系统，用于明亮恒星的光谱分析。这些用户友好的望远镜系统允许广泛的户外实验室，有些是传统的，但有些是困难的，甚至不可能用以前可用的设备。这个项目的智力价值始于创建一个最先进的入门级天文实验室的目标，该实验室利用并整合了现代技术的全部潜力，并为天文教育界提供硬件设计和实验室材料，用于升级他们自己的实验室课程。该设施每学期为360名学生提供了进行调查的机会，直到最近才被认为是不切实际的。参与这些实验室可以让学生对如何进行科学调查以及如何分析和评估数据有更深入的第一手了解。这个项目在当地课程之外的更广泛的影响落在两个不同的领域。这个项目的成功以及由此产生的设备设计和实验室练习应该鼓励更多的学术机构开发GoTo设施，为他们的入门学生提供操作自己的本地望远镜的手（和眼睛）经验。此外，户外练习可以很容易地与其他用户可能已经拥有的不同望远镜/探测器组合一起使用。这样的设施在不使用其主要功能时也可以为当地学校和社区提供服务。它也可以为那些希望创建或升级他们的实验室项目的人提供一个理想的研讨会。

The development of personal computers, CCD imagers and more recently computer controlled, so called GoTo, telescopes has greatly expanded the types of observations, both qualitative and quantitative, that can be made by the typical undergraduate student. These powerful yet extremely user friendly devices now provide the opportunity for astronomy to match or even exceed the lab experiences in the other sciences. In addition to this newly developed hardware are many excellent astronomical image manipulation software packages that provide analytical data from these digital images. The University's GoTo Astronomy Lab facility consists of an indoor laboratory room equipped with 18 computer stations, each operated by a team of two students. The heart of the facility is the adjacent outdoor observing deck with 18 permanently mounted 10-inch telescopes, each equipped with an STV CCD camera. Each telescope is connected to a computer station to allow image downloading, but this also permits indoor telescope and camera control when outdoor conditions are too severe to be on the deck for extended periods. The CCD cameras are interfaced to the telescope by a permanently mounted VISTA (Visual Imaging and Spectroscopic Telescope Adapter) which incorporates a flip mirror to allow direct viewing as well as imaging. It also has an integrated diffraction grating/cylindrical lens system for spectroscopy of bright stars. These user friendly telescope systems allow a wide spectrum of outdoor laboratories, some traditional, but some of which were difficult or even impossible with previously available equipment. The intellectual merit of this project begins with the objectives to create a state-of-the-art introductory astronomical laboratory that utilizes and integrates the full potential of modern technologies, and to provide access to the educational astronomical community both the hardware designs and the laboratory materials for use in upgrading their own laboratory curricula. The facility provides 360 students per semester an opportunity to carry out investigations that seemed unrealistic until recently. Participation in these laboratories allows students to develop a deeper, first hand understanding of how scientific investigations are undertaken and how data are analyzed and evaluated. The broader impacts of this project outside the local course fall in two different areas. The success of this project and the resultant equipment designs and lab exercises should encourage more academic institutions to develop GoTo facilities to provide their introductory students a hands (and eyes) on experience operating their own local telescopes. In addition, the outdoor exercises can be easily adapted for use with different telescope/detector combinations that other users might already have. A facility such as this can also serve local schools and the community in general when it is not in use for its primary function. It can also provide an ideal setting for workshops attended by those wishing to create or upgrade their laboratory programs.