Welcome to the Goodsell Observatory Home Page.
| News Flash: Current editors of Astrophysical Journal view a volume of Astronomy and Astro-Physics, APJ's predecessor, which was founded and published at Goodsell Observatory. |  |
News Flash: R2D2 visits Goodsell Observatory June 2 2010! |
Goodsell Observatory is located at 93° 09' 07.9" W and 44° 27'
42.4" N, altitude 290 m, on the campus of Carleton College in
Northfield, Minnesota. The building, built in the late 1890s,
houses three historic telescopes. In the larger dome there is a
16.2-inch John Brashear refractor, and in the smaller dome there is an
8
¼-inch Alvan Clark and Sons refractor. Downstairs resides
a
transit telescope originally used to help set the time in the
midwest. All three telescopes are over one hundred and ten years
old, and both the 8" and the 16" telescopes are regularly used for open
houses.
Goodsell is also equipped with modern telescopes - 8-inch Meade
Schmidt-Cassegrain LX200s - used for classes and open
houses. These telescopes are set up when needed on
permanent
piers, equiped with electricity and ethernet, located on the east lawn
of the observatory. Also available for use are six SBIG ST-2000XM
CCD cameras with CFW-8 filter wheels. These are used outside with
the portable scopes or with either of the permanent scopes, and are
supported by six Mac G5 computers on moveable carts.
With this equipment and classes which allow students to gain experience
in using them Carleton College remains a pioneer in undergraduate
astronomical studies. To learn more about Goodsell Observatory,
past and present, follow the links below…
