Astronomical studies sometimes require looking down.
Michigan State University (MSU) has discovered the foundations of the first telescopic observatory built in 1881. Staff encountered the archeology while setting up hammock posts near a student dormitory.
The astronomical discovery is reminiscent of the first US telescopes set up across the country to study the universe. MSU needed the building to accommodate its rapidly changing research, the university said.
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At the university, now known as MSU, students conducted naked-eye observations for years until Professor Laura Carpenter successfully funded a building to house the first 5.5-inch telescope. according to the university
“In the early days of MSU’s astronomy program, Professor Carpenter would take students to the rooftops of college halls and have them observe from there,” said Ben Akey, a campus archaeologist and anthropology doctoral student. Told. statement. “But he didn’t think it was a good enough solution to get students to experience stargazing.”
Considering how much astronomical activity there was in the 1870s and 1880s, it’s not surprising. The U.S. Naval Observatory had the largest refractor at the time, built in 1873. According to the Library of Congress Other areas, such as the Lick Observatory in California, also built telescopes in the 1880s. Around the same time, the Harvard University Observatory was also using a female “computer” to create images of the sky.
Astronomers at the time used telescopes for activities such as recording catalogs of nebulae and star clusters, and measuring the spectrum of starlight to better learn about the composition of stars.
MSU’s first astronomy building was circular, about 16 feet (5 meters) in diameter. Winter 2004 article The astronomical observatory is mentioned in the university alumni magazine. Iron tracks allowed the telescope to move in a perfect circle and observe the sky through an opening in the roof.
The article added that the facility was listed in the university’s inventory from 1898-1899, and that a civil engineering report from 1915 stated that there had been vandalism and that only the telescope had survived. . No other records unearthed at the time indicate what happened to the observatory. The telescope itself was discovered in his mid-1970s in the Physics and Astronomy Building on campus and is now on display at MSU’s Abrams Planetarium.
Professor Akey said the discovery of the new facility will give MSU archaeology students a valuable archaeology campus experience at a university founded in 1855, before the Civil War began. When the observatory was first operational, MSU was known as the State Agricultural University. It was given its present name in 1964.
“This old campus has a lot of historical materials.” [and] Archaeological material will be hampered by ongoing construction work on campus,” Akey said in a statement.
MSU’s Infrastructure Planning and Facilities Division, which manages the construction, said, “We are ensuring that the objects are not disturbed and we have the opportunity to document and analyze some of them. is a very nice job,” added Akey.
Research is ongoing using old maps, archaeological finds, and a book about the MSU Observatory program, Stars Over the Red Cedar, by Professor Emeritus Horace A. Smith (Schuler Books, 2020).
At MSU, astronomical research continues today in a modern way with a 24-inch telescope that has been available since 1969.