Rent a magnificent remote robotic eye in the dark night sky:  citizen-science-friendly pay-per-view astronomical research at the Great Basin Observatory--imaging, speckle, and spectroscopy Dr. John W. Kenney, III Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Physics Chair, GBO Operations Committee Concordia University Irvine, California, USA (John.Kenney@cui.edu)

Great Basin National Park

GBO visionaries A great idea for a great park Kelly Carroll Paul Gardner Park Ranger Observatory Builder

Great Basin Observatory Cooperative University Partners University of Nevada, Reno, NV Western Nevada College, Carson City, NV Southern Utah University, Cedar City, UT Concordia University, Irvine, CA National Park Partners Great Basin National Park Great Basin National Park Foundation

University Partners GBO Cooperative

Key contractors and vendors Great Basin Observatory

GBO University Cooperative 2016-present UNR WNC SUU CUI

GBO dream to GBO reality Telescope is lifted into place

Great Basin Observatory (GBO) Great Basin National Park

Remote robotic operation test GBO telescope/clamshell dome

Great Basin Observatory on-site “local control” room Actually remote, robotically controlled online!

PlaneWave CDK 700 telescope Labeled schematics

GBO telescope details PlaneWave CDK 700 The primary mirror diameter of the CDK 700 telescope is 700 mm (28 in.) While there are many variations of the Cassegrain telescope the CDK is perhaps the best suited to large format CCD imaging

More GBO telescope details PlaneWave CDK 700 The GBO CDK 700 telescope a Cassegrain two-mirror telescope that employs lenses near the focus to produce sharp images across a large detector. This telescope type is known as a "Corrected Dall-Kirkham” or "CDK" variant of the basic Cassegrain form.

GBO and the Milky Way CDK 700 telescope

Light in GBNP—nighttime Milky Way galaxy

GBO image Spiral galaxy

GBO image “Hamburger” galaxy

GBO image Nebula

GBO image Double star system

GBO image: triple star system WDS 20023+6438 C

Optical spectrum of Saturn Spectrum measured using GBO

Optical spectrum of Jupiter Spectrum measured using GBO

Shelyak eShel Spectrograph Camera Thorium/argon power supply Fiber from telescope Echelle spectrograph R = 10,000

Solar spectrum-Fraunhofer lines Stellar spectral “classification”

Atomic/molecular spectra “Fingerprints” determine identity Sodium D Doublet Hydrogen Balmer

UNR undergrad exoplanet team GBO-based senior thesis projects Tyson Lewis, Hannah Mason, Kelly Lane

Exoplanet transit in front of star Experimental data

Southern Utah University GBO light curve-exoplanet transit

GBO study of triple star system SUU undergrad research team CDC Measurements of AB and AC Components of WDS 20023+6438 William Zerkle, Dallas Anselmo, Taylor Hammack, Gideon Johnson, Morgan Taylor, Sterling Young, and Rhett Zollinger Southern Utah University

Classic “pay-per-view” telescope! Photons out $ in

Slooh pay-per-view

Slooh AstroLab Slooh AstroLab offers college astronomy students the opportunity to robotically control a global network of telescopes to image over 500 celestial objects. Each student will be able to make reservations to view 500 objects in the night sky, everything you need to explore outer space and complete your coursework. $29.95 per semester per student

itelescope “pay-per-view” Various pay-per-view plans Each telescope in network is assigned a certain # of points per imaging hour

GBO “pay-per-view” vision Imaging Speckle Spectroscopy GBO: first class, remote, robotic, pay-per-view, citizen-science-friendly astrophysics

Special thanks GBO design and development Paul Gardner, Observatory Systems Cole Niebuhr, Global Science Directive

GBO “stars” at Concordia Mackenzie Graham Chemistry major Ruth Larson Physics major