This project will acquire a 0.6-meter research telescope for Swarthmore College which will be used with a separately-funded camera and spectrograph for faculty and student research. This research will include monitoring of accretion in young stars, a study of the winds of OB stars, and a study of Be stellar disks. These areas of research are best studied with a dedicated facility and large amounts of telescope time.
This facility will enable research training of undergraduate astronomy majors, roughly half of whom are women, and a significant fraction of whom become professional scientists. The training includes experience in planning and carrying out observations using a research-grade instrument, and reducing, analyzing, and publishing the resulting data. The observatory will also be available to the larger astronomical community.
This award is funded by the Division of Astronomical Sciences and the MPS office of Multidisciplinary Activities
