Fick Observatory

Fick observatory

Organization	Iowa State University
Location	Boone, Iowa, USA
Coordinates	coord|42|00|20.2|N|93|56|38.2|W|
Altitude	314 m
Webpage	[http://www.public.iastate.edu/~sdk/fick/ Webpage]
Telescopes
Mather	0.6 m reflector
??	8.5 m dish

The Fick observatory is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by Iowa State University. It is located southwest of Boone, Iowa and is named after local amateur astronomer Erwin W. Fick.

History

After the death of the local amateur astronomer Mr. Milo Mather in 1960, his family decided to donated his 24-inch diameter Cassegrain reflector to Iowa State University. The university placed it at a site north of Ames, IA and it served as the university's only astronomical equipment until 1966.

In 1966, Iowa State University using funding from the National Science Foundation built the present day observatory south west of Boone, IA. The mirror from the original Mather telescope was refigured and realuminized for use in the new observatory. The observatory was named after local amateur astronomer Erwin W. Fick who, along with the Mather family, continues to financially support the continued upgrade of instrumentation at the observatory.

In the late 1980's and 1990's, Fick observatory participated in many research projects as well as continuing to educate university astronomy students. As of 2004, teams were attempting to retrofit an old communications dish for use as a Radio telescope as well as automate the current Mather telescope.

Equipment

*0.6 meter Cassegrain reflector, Mather telescope
*8.5-meter parabolic dish antenna, Radio telescope

External links

* [http://www.public.iastate.edu/~sdk/fick/mather.html Description]
* [http://cosmos.ssol.iastate.edu/fickauto/index.html Automation]
* [http://cosmos.ssol.iastate.edu/RadioTel/index.html Radio Telescope]
* [http://cleardarksky.com/c/ErwnFckObIAkey.html?1 Fick Observatory Clear Sky Clock] Forecasts of observing conditions.= =