By Jill Baker Assistant news editor
An expensive piece of technology, with magnification power of 50 times or more, sits collecting dust in the observatory on Susquehanna’s campus.
The 10-foot reflecting telescope was donated to Susquehanna by the University of Arizona, explained the chair of the physics department, Samya Zain. The date it was donated is not recorded, but records of the telescope date back to before 1993.
The observatory, which sits atop Fisher Hall, has not been utilized in at least 15 years.
Current astronomy professor and assistant professor of physics, Massooma Pirbhai, came to Susquehanna two years ago and dove into the possibilities of the use of the observatory.
She found the telescope itself to have mechanical and software problems, which alone would cost the school a great deal of money to repair, but she was also informed of many other setbacks.
The metal observatory protrudes from the north side of the academic building, and one of the largest setbacks is noticeable from the outside. When attempting to open the door to the sky, only the top portion of the door opens, leaving the bottom shutter blocking a portion of the telescope’s view.
“When you build an observatory, you want to put it on a foundation of concrete and we didn’t. This meant problems with when you were walking; it would have problems in terms of shaking and clarity,” Pirbhai said. She also added that the observatory was located directly next to the heating and air conditioner systems and as they were turned on they would increase the shaking.
Since all of these things combine to make the observatory unproductive, it is not open to students, faculty or the public.
If the telescope was on a concrete foundation and fully accessible, the possibilities would be substantial, said Pirbhai. The telescope would be able to look at different stars and planets in our solar system.
The previous astronomy professor expressed to Pirbhai that she had been using the telescope to study binary stars. People got a great deal of use from it, but once it broke, it began to rust and other problems developed. Now they do not have the funds to repair and maintain the system.
Susquehanna has purchased a blowup planetarium to fulfill some of the things that would have been able to observed in the night’s sky, but the planetarium is simply a display of a model that an astronomer may have seen before. The observatory would be a magnification of the real thing, Pirbhai explained.
“We used to be able to take our astronomy students up in there to talk about and show them the moon for class,” Pirbhai said. Now the class just uses the blowup planetarium.
After being asked about the price of repair, Pirbhai explained that the number was unable to be estimated but the costs would have to cover many aspects that no longer work on top of the cost of on-going maintenance.
She joked that even if Susquehanna did get the observatory up and working again and was able to draw astronomers, it would not be worth it due to the entire building shaking the whole time.
“What it’s being used for? At the moment nothing. For the rest of the time here I am sure we are going to try to maintain it,” Pirbhai said. “Every few months I try to go up and turn it on and open it up, turn things on, make sure the weather has not damaged anything and then close it all up and wait a couple more months.”
