Telescope gives PSU vision in Texas

Wednesday, Jan. 15, 1997	Telescope gives PSU vision in Texas By KELLY RUOFF Collegian Staff Writer When University professors Larry Ramsey and Dan Weedman were looking for places to test their latest concept for the largest optical telescope in the continental United States, Beaver Stadium was the first area that came to mind.
`Penn State department of Astronomy and Physics` `HET information page`	By using mirrors placed in the elevator shaft and viewing them from the press box, Weedman and project scientist Ramsey tested several of the 91 mirrors that would later make the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, built in a partnership between Penn State, the University of Texas at Austin and the German universities of Munich and Gottingen. The idea for the $13.5 million telescope -- named for the two major financial supporters of the project, former Texas Lieutenant-Governor Bill Hobby and Robert Eberly of the University's Eberly College of Science -- originated in 1983 when astrophysics and astronomy professors Ramsey and Weedman set out to design a large telescope to put the University on the map, Weedman said. Despite the telescope's massive size, it was also designed in the most cost-effective way by using many mirrors, Ramsey said.
*" It's a whole lot cheaper made up of lots of little mirrors than one giant piece of glass. "* - Dan Weedman University professor	"It's a whole lot cheaper made up of lots of little mirrors than one giant piece of glass," Weedman said. "The most important part is that it makes it very technologically feasible and much more affordable." The entire telescope remains stationary, while a tracking device follows any moving objects, such as stars and planets. "The revolutionary thing about this telescope is that the telescope doesn't tilt," he said. "The mirrors are always pointed in the same direction. It's extremely economical because instead of moving the telescope when an object moves, instead of moving hundreds of tons of glass and metal, we move a few hundred pounds that track the object." As the project nears the end of its construction, which began in March of 1994, Ramsey said the hardest work is yet to come. "It's the end of the construction phase, now the hard work is beginning for the astronomers," Ramsey said. "We're changing from a construction project to a science project."
*" Telescopes are time machines," Ramsey said. "The further away you look, the older you find things. "* - Larry Ramsey University professor	The optical telescope, located at the McDonald Observatory in the Davis mountains in western Texas, provided its first images, named "first light," on Dec. 10. The instrument will be used to search for planets around other stars as well as studying the elements within the galaxy. The accessibility of the Hobby-Eberly Telescope makes it different from other similar instruments, Ramsey and Weedman said. "This will be one of the easiest large telescopes in the world to visit," Ramsey said. "One hundred thousand people a year visit McDonald Observatory. The average citizen can drive to Texas and visit the Big Ben National Park and the telescope." Undergraduate and graduate students will also be researching and studying the data from the telescope in future years, Ramsey said. "Telescopes are time machines," Ramsey said. "The further away you look, the older you find things."