Elon University will receive observing time on a new telescope array to be built at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile as part of two proposals recently funded by the National Science Foundation. Starting in 2005, Elon faculty members and students will receive 420 hours of observing time per year at the Panchromatic Robotic Optical Monitoring and Polarimetry Telescopes, or PROMPT. The value of this telescope time at commercial observatories is estimated at $11,000 per year. Anthony Crider, assistant professor of physics, will direct Elon’s use of this facility.
With grants totaling $912,000, lead institution UNC-Chapel Hill will begin construction of PROMPT this fall. The facility will consist of six 0.4-meter telescopes set atop robotic mounts that can be controlled remotely by astronomers at universities in North Carolina. Cameras on five of the telescopes will be optimized for a particular color of light, including violet, blue, red, deep red and infrared. The sixth camera will measure the polarization of the incident light, commonly used by astronomers as an indicator of the strength of magnetic field at the source.
Use of PROMPT will complement an undergraduate research project already underway at Elon. Last year, students under Crider’s direction began assembling the Elon University Robotic Observatory (EURO), a 0.25-meter telescope to reside atop the Koury Center on campus. Students will use the telescope to investigate a variety of objects, including magnetars, near-Earth asteroids and extra-solar planets. However, the size and location of EURO limits its effectiveness in observing certain targets of interest. PROMPT will allow students to employ skills learned at the on-campus facility in observations of objects too faint or too far south to be seen from the Elon campus.
Institutions throughout North Carolina will share use of PROMPT. A majority of the telescopes’ time will be dedicated to UNC-Chapel Hill’s program for observing gamma-ray bursts, believed to be the most powerful explosions in the universe. Morehead Planetarium and Science Center in Chapel Hill will devote its ten percent of the available time toward K-12 education and public outreach.
Astronomers from ten other nearby colleges and universities will use PROMPT in their research and education programs. Along with Elon and UNC-Chapel Hill, other institutions using the telescopes include Appalachian State University, Fayetteville State University, Guilford Technical Community College, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, UNC-Asheville, UNC-Charlotte, UNC-Greensboro, UNC-Pembroke, Western Carolina University and Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia.
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