Academy Begins Constructing New Telescope
On Friday, Oct. 4, the Academy began construction of a new telescope for the Grainger Observatory. Upon completion, the telescope will be the largest in all of New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine, serving as a major asset for students and the greater community alike. This project is the capstone of substantial planning by Director of Grainger Observatory John Blackwell, and will replace the existing robotic observatory, which now resides between the observatory’s two domes.
The new observatory will allow the telescope to better collect light and resolving power, which will increase its clarity and range, according to Blackwell. Equipped with two output ports—one with a dedicated charge-coupled device imaging camera and the other with a fiber-fed spectrograph—the observatory will have the ability to collect high-resolution spectra of astronomical objects. Additionally, this robotic system will collect data automatically during the night, depending on targets selected by the users.
Blackwell emphasized that the new telescope will dramatically advance the observatory’s various projects. Grainger Observatory will “collect data on many more targets than we have been able to see before,” Blackwell said. “Some typical projects would be: asteroid orbital analysis and light curve generation, variable star research, extra-solar planet detection and confirmation, temperature and chemical composition studies of stars and more.”
According to Director of Major Gifts Chuck Ramsay, the construction was funded by a generous donation. “The donor is anonymous … There was no concerted fundraising effort,” he said. “The donor stepped forward with a generous offer to fund a new telescope, and we accepted the offer.”
Chief Financial Officer Marijka Beauchesne elaborated on the typical protocol of renovations on the Exeter campus. “Almost all other renovations are funded by the school’s annual budget and are planned over a 10 year period and approved by the Trustees,” she said.
The new telescope will be used to create a more immersive learning experience. “The primary users of this telescope system will be the two advanced astronomy courses: Physics 480 and Physics 570,” Blackwell said “[The computer] plans the observing session and collects the data for us,” he said. “The benefits of the larger telescope will be to have much higher resolution in our images and having a larger light-bucket to see fainter objects.”
Upper and astronomy student Will Peeler noted that the observatory will continue to be available for the broader Exeter community. “Local families are welcome at Astronomy Club every week; families look through our equipment all the time,” Peeler said.
Astronomy Club co-head and senior Anna Iacobucci added that the observatory will allow for more student-led projects. “The new observatory is an amazing opportunity for students to do new research in addition to simply observing,” Iacobucci said. “There are not a whole lot of high schools who actually have access to an observatory, and I think we’re incredibly lucky to have it as a resource.”
Similarly, alumni admired the plans for the new telescope, some even lamenting over the fact that they would miss the construction of it. “This project is so cool—I’d use the hell out of it,” Nick Song ’18 said. “Like I’d post up with a sleeping bag and you’d have to call Campus Safety to kick me out of there. I don’t think people realize the tech here was already top tier—but this makes it that much better.”
For Iacobucci, this new observatory will only foster her passion for astronomy even more. “One of the best parts of my Exeter experience has been the open observing nights, where community members have the opportunity to come and see stars or planets,” she said. “It’s impossible to forget the look on someone’s face the first time they see Jupiter.”
Reflecting upon the project, Blackwell concluded that the telescope will have a significant impact on the Exeter campus. “It opens a huge door to student accessibility to excellent equipment, and thus enables them access to doing excellent science,” he said. “One of my constant goals is to maintain a solid connection with what professional astronomers do for a living, and provide access to this work to students. They should know what doing astronomy is all about.”