This is a planetary nebula which means it's the hot gas cloud surrounding a dead or dying star. Photo taken by Don Schumacher, Jr. M.S., Space Sciences, Florida Tech Class of 2011.
Looking at the instrument end of the Ortega telescope. It has two CCD cameras plus a spectrograph that splits the light into a spectrum. This allows you to look at the stars and know what they are made of.
On a good night you start observing before sunset so you can get the Ortega telescope ready before it gets dark.
Looking west through the dome slit of the Ortega observatory.
Should you be an astronomy major?
The Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope has an 8-inch mirror at the bottom. At the front is a correcting lens that allows for sharp viewing.
The Orion Nebula is the closest massive star-forming region to Earth. 1,344 light years away. Photo taken by Don Schumacher, a member of the Student Astronomical Society.
Once a month, club members are allowed to take pretty pictures on the Ortega Telescope. This photo was taken by student Don Schumacher and other members of SAS.
This is a planetary nebula which means it’s the hot gas cloud surrounding a dead or dying star. Photo taken by Don Schumacher, Jr. M.S., Space Sciences, Florida Tech Class of 2011.
A globular cluster is a gravitationally-bound grouping of stars. These stars tend to be very old and yellow- to red-colored. This photo was taken with the Ortega Telescope by, student Don Schumacher, and other members of SAS.
This is a spiral galaxy. It gets its name from the dark black band of dust near the center of the galaxy. Photo taken by Don Schumacher, Jr. M.S., Space Sciences, Florida Tech Class of 2011.
The Whirlpool Galaxy is actually an interacting pair of galaxies and one of the most photographed galaxies by amateur astronomers. Photo taken by Don Schumacher, Jr. M.S., Space Sciences, Florida Tech Class of 2011
Sitting high in the center dome of the F.W. Olin Physical Sciences Building is the 0.8-meter (32-inch) Ortega Telescope, one of the largest research telescopes in the Southeast. Faculty and students train this eye on the sky to see black holes whose masses can reach billions of times that of the sun, globular clusters, whirlpool galaxies and hot gassy nebulae. Researchers also study binary and multiple star systems, the decline of stellar activity and more. The telescope is equipped with a large-format CCD imaging system and a spectrograph, so you can see what the stars are actually made of. A sophisticated imaging camera—opening the big eye even wider— is now being tested on the Ortega Telescope. The technology can help astronomers spot very faint objects near to very bright objects—planets around other stars, for example. On clear evenings, stargazers venture onto the roof, first to see the amazing sunset, then to peer through the night sky at the stars through small, high-quality telescopes. What an awesome sight.
