The Student Observatory at CSN consists of three 10 foot domes and an open observing pad inside a 45' x 60' compound.

The first dome contains an 8" Celestron SCT CompuStar. The computer driven telescope is used for both day and night observing. In the day, a full aperture aluminized solar filter can be used or a DayStar Hydrogen-alpha filter. Recent solar images are available for viewing.

The second dome contains a 16" Newtonian/Cassegrain telescope. This instrument is a Parks HIT design. After about a year of problems, this instrument is now providing excellent images at the Newtonian focus. We still have tests to run on the Cassegrain focus. Poor weather has made it difficult to schedule testing times. We hope to have some images to post from this telescope this Summer.

The third dome currently contains a 12.5" Newtonian/Cassegrain telescope. Initially, a 4" Unitron refractor was housed in this dome. When Roland Wiley donated the 12.5" scope, it replaced the refractor. Soon, we will be mounting the refractor on the same mounting with the 12.5" telescope. Recent images of Saturn and images of Jupiter taken by this telescope are available for viewing.