New Telescope Graces Roof of Science Center

By William J. Cromie

Gazette Staff

In case you haven't noticed, there's another dome on top of the Science Center. It houses a new telescope that will be used for teaching astronomy.

The instrument, worth about $20,000, is a gift from C. Harry and Janet Knowles. Mr. Knowles, an amateur astronomer, asked an old friend, Professor of Physics Costas Papaliolios, what kind of telescope he should buy for his own use. Papaliolios consulted with Astronomy Professor Jonathan (Josh) Grindlay, who described an instrument that he himself was interested in getting for student teaching and research.

When Knowles found out that Grindlay was having trouble raising the required funds, he offered to buy two telescopes and give one to Harvard.

"That's all there was to it," says Papaliolios. "Harry [Knowles] has no other connection with Harvard."

The Knowles Telescope was installed in its new dome last September in time to be used for the Core course Observing the Sun and Stars. However, it was not officially dedicated until last week.

In its first use, the telescope formed the centerpiece for weekly evening sessions of the Core astronomy course. Students did a variety of projects, from measuring the distance to Saturn and the Pleiades star cluster to calculating the mass of the nearby Andromeda galaxy, according to Grindlay. Grindlay co-teaches the course with Astronomy Professor Robert Noyes.

During the spring term, students used the telescope in the Laboratory Astrophysics course to measure the brightness and color of several star clusters in our Milky Way galaxy. Such measurements allow the ages and distances of the stars to be calculated.

The instrument is a Meade 16-inch reflecting telescope. Looking through it, students can see an area of the sky equal to twice the diameter of the Moon. However, for most purposes, an electronic camera is used to take digital images of a much smaller area. A three-minute exposure reveals the brightness and color of stars some 10,000 times fainter than the dimmest stars visible to the eye.

Operated by computer, the Knowles Telescope is more compact than the Loomis-Michael instrument in the larger dome next to it. The latter, a 10-inch refracting telescope, boasts a longer tube, so it needs a larger dome.

Grindlay, who also co-teaches Laboratory Astrophysics with Patrick Thaddeus, is enthusiastic about the new telescope. "It has truly expanded the visual and measurable universe for Harvard students," he says.