MSUM Physics & Astronomy Seminar Series
The Martens Observatory: UND’s and North Dakota’s Largest Telescope Facility
Friday, April 21 | 3 p.m. | Hagen 325
Speaker: Dr. Tim Young, Professor, Department of Physics and Astrophysics, University of North Dakota
Abstract: The Martens-Kraus Telescope at the Martens Observatory is a 0.51-meter (20 inch) telescope made possible by a donation by Erwin Martens.
The telescope is nearing remote capabilities and is primarily used as a student research facility for undergraduate and graduate students. It can image objects like supernovae, novae, asteroids, transiting exoplanets, galaxies and clusters of galaxies with the SBIG CCD camera.
This summer the telescope is being set up for spectroscopy with the Shelyak spectrometer. The talk will describe the challenges of setting up a functional observatory, the choices UND made in designing the facility, and the science done with the observatory.