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Telescopes of the University of Washington
All research-oriented Astronomy Departments require the best of instrumentation for discovering the Universe and training
students on observational methods. Any first-class, diverse department such as ours must provide access to a variety of
observatories that serve broad needs. Some of these facilities are provided at the national level, such as the Hubble
Space Telescope and other facilities in space, at annual costs of several billion dollars for construction, launch, and
operations. In addition, federally funded ground-based observatories provide extremely capable and expensive telescopes
such as the Very Large Array, the Gemini Infrared Observatory, etc. However, the national facilities are crafted to fill
unique, national-scale needs. The number of such facilities is small, their design is highly specialized, and the time
available on them fulfills only a small fraction of the needs of the total national astronomical community In short,
national facilities are not intended to play the role of university-operated telescopes that provide access for the bulk
of modern observations, or to train students, to conduct routine research programs that can be done on modest telescopes
that lie within the financial and technical reach of universities.
A department with a strong observational program must operate its own set of telescopes for routine research needs. These
telescopes are like a basic automobile, whereas the national facilities are like a crane that you might rent when your needs
are highly specialized. The University of Washington presently supports a modest array of observing telescopes. The 3.5-m
(138-inch) optical telescope at Apache Point Observatory is the core of our University-supported observational
and instrumentation program. It is an essential complement to the frontier research that we conduct using unique and
internationally accessible NASA satellites, such as the Hubble Space Telescope, and large ground-based radio, infrared,
and optical facilities funded by the National Science Foundation. The telescope's pioneering design is the work of the
engineering group within the U.W. Astronomy Department. U.W. astronomers and administrators successfully engaged several
other prestigious universities in founding the observatory in 1984, and the facility started operations in 1992.
The APO collaboration has grown to include the Universities of Chicago, Princeton, Johns Hopkins, Colorado, and
New Mexico State. U.W. faculty and students have 31% of the annual time (100 nights per year).
The cost of operating these facilities is holding steady while the state budgets that support their operations
are declining. Accordingly support is requested for an operations endowment for the 3.5-m telescope at
Apache Point Observatory. It is also mandatory to equip our telescopes with the most
modern of detectors and instruments in order to continue our frontier research programs and to properly train our students
on methodologies of observing. We solicit contributions that cover a wide swath of needs, from operating funds
to the construction of major new instruments on our largest telescopes. Substantial contributors should
contact
us
in order to discuss the most mutually beneficial use of their contribution.
Funds for Major Research Equipment and Facilities
donate now
contact us for more information
Observatory
Operations:
U.W. is participating in major capital facility, the 3.5-m telescope at Apache Point Observatory, in collaboration with peer
institutions (Princeton, Chicago, Johns Hopkins, Colorado, and New Mexico State) with shared research interests. At the present
time the annual cost is approaching $350,000. State of Washington funds are being used to pay these costs temporarily; however these
funds can be volatile in times of severe budget restrictions. Our goal is to secure permanent funding for operations. An operating
endowment of $3,000,000 is needed. Contributions of any size are welcome.
Telescope Instruments:
Although telescopes have a research life of over 50 years, the instruments used to analyze light need replacement on time scales
of five years thanks to leaps in technology and changing interests in science. Donations of $200,000 or more can be matched with
other funds in order to provide a steady stream of new instruments built at U.W. As an example, all imaging cameras used in
astronomy have been black and white systems with a single detector. The technology for separating the light into three beams
of read, green, and blue light is now available. With a donation of $250,000 we could construct the world's first "Fast
Color Camera" that would improve our observing efficiency by a factor of three and make a 3.5-m telescope very competitive
with a 6-meter telescope for many deep imaging applications.
Manastash Ridge Observatory
Refurbishment:
MRO is a wholly U.W. owned 30-inch telescope in the Cascades near Ell ens burg built in 1971 and operated continuously
ever since. The facility has been a centerpiece of our undergraduate research effort, and is one of the most
outstanding undergraduate telescopes in the nation.. However, for its present role to continue the observatory and
telescope are in need of substantial rejuvenation. Specific projects for the near-term that would improve the MRO
capabilities greatly are the installation on a large format CCD camera on the telescope ($80,000) and a streamlined
telescope operating system ($20,000).
Data & Computational Analysis
Facility:
The advent of large digital surveys has drastically increased the need for computational processing and database management
in astronomy. For example, the existing Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) has already produced over a terabyte (1000 Gigabytes) of data, and
far larger and deeper surveys are on the way. The capacity and capability of this system will need to be greatly expanded for new survey
and patrol projects. Likewise, the need for more predictive theoretical work in numerical astrophysics requires sophisticated computer
modeling on computers with very massively parallel processors and data visualization requirements. Such a facility could be a key piece
of Departmental infrastructure for a Center of Excellence (see above). The approximate cost is $500,000.
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