This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
Few undergraduate institutions are able to provide their faculty and students with research grade telescopes and instrumentation. The University of Hawaii at Hilo (UHH) is, however, an exception. They have recently acquired a new one-meter class telescope which is located on the top of Mauna Kea, one of the world's premier sites for observational astronomy. Dr. David James of UHH is heading up the installation of two new instruments for the telescope: a new digital optical camera and a spectrograph which will be used to analyze the light from stars. The new equipment will allow faculty astronomers to conduct important scientific research. It will also be used extensively to provide training and scientific research experiences for UHH undergraduate students. The instrumentation is being made possible through the NSF's Major Research Instrumentation program.
