Emory University News Release

Release date: Sept. 24, 2002
Contact: Nancy Seideman, Director, University Media Relations,
at 404-727-0640 or nseidem@emory.edu

New Mathematics and Science Center Installs Observatory Telescope

MEDIA ADVISORY

WHAT: Installation of telescope on the rooftop observatory of the new Mathematics and Science Center at Emory University.

WHEN: 8:30 a.m., Tuesday, Sept. 24 (Rescheduled from Sunday, Sept. 22)

WHERE: Mathematics and Science Center, 400 Dowman Drive, Emory

PARKING: B. Jones Visitor Parking Lot, behind the Boisfeuillet Jones Center. From Dowman Drive at the main entrance of campus, lot is the first left.

Emory University will install a state-of-the-art, $250,000 telescope on the roof of the new Mathematics and Science Center Sunday, Sept. 24, completing the final piece of the university's first observatory. Dowman Drive will be closed from Kilgo Circle to the intersection of Dickey Drive starting at 8 p.m. for the installation. Once the crane is in place, it is anticipated that the telescope will be lifted to the roof in pieces starting by 8:30 p.m.

The research-grade telescope is five feet long and features a 24-inch primary mirror and a smaller secondary mirror. Even with artificial light from Atlanta dulling the night sky, the telescope is powerful enough to penetrate into the universe and see millions objects, says Ray DuVarney, physics department chairman.

"The telescope will be used primarily as a teaching tool that will allow us to instruct students in all of the professional observational techniques needed in astronomy," says DuVarney. With the new observatory, DuVarney says the department now has the facilities to offer degree programs in astronomy and astrophysics for the first time.

Emory's Mathematics and Science Center is a five-story, $40 million, 138,000-square-foot facility, and is the new home for the departments of physics, math and computer science, and environmental studies. In addition to multi-media classrooms, offices and laboratories, the building houses the university's first planetarium with room for 60, a 180-seat lecture hall and an environmental outdoor classroom. An open house for the new facility will be held Tuesday, Oct. 8.

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