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Award: $288,875 (FY ’03)
Funding Source: Emil Buehler Trust
Project Director: Dr. Roger Opstbaum
Activities: Visit the BCC Buehler Columbia Amateur Astronomers Association website
Proposal Abstract:
The Emil Buehler Trust provided a grant to the Bergen Community College Foundation in the amount of $288,875 for the purpose of constructing and equipping two observatories. The proposed equipment includes the following:
- Two five meter diameter observatory domes
- Three 16″ telescopes
- Eyepieces, lenses, and filters Spectroscopes and photometers
- Cameras, CCDs and accessories
- Solar equipment
- Audio visual equipment
- Computers and software
- Books, manuals, and atlases.
The observatories will serve particular needs of Bergen Community College students participating in the astronomy classes on campus. At present, these students must travel to the Sperry Observatory at Union County College and rely on resources there when schedules and weather permit. Facilities of this nature on the Bergen campus will dramatically enhance student learning by providing both continuing opportunities for hands-on observation and immediate application of knowledge gained in the classroom.
The observatory facilities will also be made available to enrich Bergen County at large. School districts will be able to bring science students to the college campus for planetary observations. In many instances, such opportunities will supplement and extend experiential learning available at the Challenger Space and Science Center. Furthermore, numerous county residents who belong to astronomy clubs in the area will reap significant benefits from access to a local observatory.