Atlantic Canada's Largest Telescope!

The telescope will be used primarily as a research and teaching resource for physics and astronomy faculty, staff and students, however community outreach programs will also be an important part of its mandate. Public tours and observing nights will be scheduled, as well as remote-observing programs for provincial schools, and astronomy and physics-themed "camps" for high school students - such as the SNAP camp for Level II students held in the spring.
 

The telescope is fully computer-controlled with tracking motors on an equatorial mount to compensate for the motion of the Earth, allowing it to maintain objects in its field of view. Within the dome, a 5" finder telescope and articulated relay eyepiece (ARE) can accommodate the viewing public of all sizes and abilities. The addition of a small solar telescope, piggybacked on the main telescope, will allow safe viewing of the Sun during the daytime.

A separate "warm room" allows observers to point the telescope and control its instruments - such as the high-performance cooled U6 CCD camera from Apogee Instruments- from relative comfort.

The astronomical research group at Grenfell will use the instrument to study galaxies, star clusters, variable stars, supernovae, asteroids, and extra-solar planets.

Here are some early pictures of pieces of our telescope from our tour of the DFM site in the spring of 2010.

For more information, see our FAQ page, or contact Dr. Doug Forbes.