Tuesday, September 01, 2009
Montgomery County Community College will hold three open community nights this fall in its state-of-the-art Observatory and Observation Deck. The open observatory dates are Sept. 15 from 7-9 p.m.; Oct. 13 from 7-9 p.m.; and Nov. 17, 6-8 p.m., weather permitting. The Observatory is located on the third floor of the College’s Advanced Technology Center, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell.
Open community nights are free of charge and are open to the public. Astronomy clubs are encouraged to attend. Attendees are invited to bring their own telescopes to set up on the Observation Deck, or they can observe the night sky using the College’s telescope and equipment. For more information, call 215-641-6460.
The Observatory and Observation Deck are features of the College’s 60,000 square-foot Advanced Technology Center, which opened for classes in the fall 2007. The Observatory features a 16-inch MEADE Schmidt-Cassegrain research-level telescope and a 90-mm Coronado telescope for safe observation of the sun. All of the instruments are controllable both in the classroom as well as in the Observatory itself. Through a fiber network, images can be downloaded for further study and comparison and can be used in online courses.
In addition to astronomy, the Advanced Technology Center houses high-demand programming in the fields of biotechnology, computer game design, animation, digital audio and video design and geographic information systems.
