Introduction

The Observatory at the University of California, Irvine, is located in the fields on the outskirts of campus.  The observatory has a large computer-controlled telescope (shown in the photograph on the left) and numerous other smaller, portable, telescopes.  Currently the observatory is used in the introductory astronomy series taught by the Department of Physics & Astronomy, in particular, Physics 20C - Observational Astronomy. In addition, undergraduate physics majors can do experiments with the telescopes in the Physics 139 Observational Astrophysics class and the Physics 121 Advanced Lab class. The Astronomy Club at UCI meets at the observatory nearly every two weeks to explore the night sky using these telescopes. We also host Visitor Nights  each quarter that are open to the public and tours for interested school groups and scout troops.

The observatory's main computer-controlled f/8 telescope has a 24-inch primary mirror and 8.5-inch secondary mirror. The telescope is operated in person or remotely via the ethernet with a LINUX-based control program called UCIROB which was written by Professor Tony Shoup. Installed at the Cassagrain focus are a variety of eyepieces, an electronic camera, and a spectrograph. People can view astronomical objects such as planets,  star clusters, planetary nebulae and galaxies with the eyepieces.

Scientific observations are made with an imaging camera or spectrograph. Our imager is an SBIG ST-9XE CCD camera with a field-of-view of 7 arcmin x 7 arcmin, and we can guide extremely well with an SBIG Adaptive Optics Module using the Tracking CCD on the ST-9XE while imaging with the Science CCD.  We use an SBIG ST-6 CCD behind an  5-inch telescope (the orange telescope mounted on the side of the main telescope in the picture above) as a finding scope with a 25' x 19' field of view.

We also have an SBIG Self-Guiding Spectrograph, which images the light reflected off the slit to automatically keep the star centered on the slit. The spectrograph detector is an SBIG ST-8E CCD, which provides us with spectra at high resolution with a dispersion of 1.1 Angstrom/pixel and a wavelength coverage of 1640 Angstrom or low resolution with a dispersion of 4.3 Angstrom/pixel and a wavelength coverage of 6550 Angstrom.

Photos and Images

• Photos of the UCI Observatory and examples of images obtained with the telescope
• Photos from the Solar Eclipse of June 11, 2002
• Photos from the Lunar Eclipse of Aug 28, 2007

 Public Access

• Astronomy Club at UCI
  
  
Undergraduate students are invited to join the Astronomy Club at UCI, which meets at the Observatory approximately every two weeks all year round.
 
• Visitor Nights at the UCI Observatory
  

We host Visitor Nights, which are open to the general public, approximately 6 times per year. Click on the links below to get a poster or detailed information about the next Vistior Night, driving directions, parking instructions, etc. To add your name to the email list to receive notices for upcoming Visitor Nights or to request tours for scout troops or small groups of school students please contact the director of the UCI Observatory,


          Professor Tammy Smecker-Hane
          tsmecker@uci.edu

  Up-Coming Visitor Nights:

  The next Visitor Night at the UCI Observatory will be

    Click on the following for more information:


• Visitor Night Poster
• Visitor Night Information  
Prior Visitor Nights:
 
• Information about prior Visitor Nights is available here.
  
• Information about Mars' viewing is available here.

• Professor Smecker-Hane leads the Astronomy Outreach Program, formerly sponsored by a National Science Foundation FOCUS grant to UCI. A powerpoint presentation that describes our outreach probram can be found here: ppt version, pdf version. It has three important components:
  
  
• Tours of the UCI Observatory  and Classroom Visits for Elementary, Middle and High School Students. You can see the current schedule on the web.
  
  
• Our Teacher's Workshop in Astronomy & Astrophysics is part of a two week long Earth Science Workshop for K-12 math and science teachers run by the Center for Educational Partnerships. The fourth annual workshop will be held on Monday and Tuesday, August 4-5, 2008.
  
  
• Visitor Nights at the UCI Observatory for the general public.
  
  
• Astronomy Information useful for students, parents, teachers and the general public. Find some tips about observing the night sky, discover where to find astronomy teaching materials on the web, or where to download a podcast of a public lecture on a hot topic in astronomy.
  
  
• COSMOS Astronomy & Astrophysics Cluster. The COSMOS program is a month-long summer school for talented high school students held at UC Irvine, UC Santa Cruz, UC Davis and UC San Diego each summer. Students in the Astronomy & Astrophysics Cluster at UCI take classes and laboratories in astronomy & astrophysics and do research projects with telescopes at the UCI Observatory.
  
  
• Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Researchers who want to be reimbursed from their research fund from participating in the Astronomy Outreach Program can click here for details.