The Hardin Planetarium is located next to TCCW on Western Kentucky University’s main campus. It opened its doors on October 14, 1967 and has continually been bringing the night sky to the public of Bowling Green. Dr. Paul B. Campbell was the Director from 1970-1991. Dr. Roger Scott has been the current Director and main presenter of Hardin Planetarium from 1991 to the present.
The Bell Observatory is located on a dark site outside of Bowling Green, Kentucky. It houses a 0.6m telescope, the largest optical telescope in the state of Kentucky. The observatory was built in 1987 and refurbished in 1999, and is now part of a worldwide monitoring project of active galactic nuclei, along with other projects. WKU students are trained to observe remotely from the main campus to obtain data.
The
Robotically-Controlled Telescope (RCT) is a 1.3-meter (50inch) f/14 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope on a German equatorial mount. Located on Kitt Peak in southern Arizona at an elevation of 2070 meters (6790 feet), the RCT occupies the dome across from the Kitt Peak Visitors' Center and adjacent to the KPNO administration building. The RCT Consortium is a group of universities and research institutions who have assumed control of the 1.3-m (50-inch) telescope on Kitt Peak, Arizona.
Through a partnership with the
Crimean Astrophysical Observatory (CRAO) WKU astronomers have access to 10% of the time on the AZT -11 telescope at CRAO. The AZT 11 is a 1.3m telescope (the same size as the RCT) equipped with a CCD camera and filters for broadband imaging of astronomical objects. WKU and CRAO astronomers work closely together on a variety of research projects and publish papers jointly.
The program's 0.3m telescope is housed on top of Thomspon Central Complex Wing (TCCW). It is computer controlled via a software package known as The Sky and it has a CCD camera with RGB filters and a spectrograph. This telescope is used for the monthly
Public Viewing Nights , and has a laboratory for our astronomy classes. We also use it as a training facility for students in our Physics major who are concentrating in Astronomy and/or Astronomy minors.
Dr. Rachel Campbell conducted her doctoral research at Mt. Stromlo Observatory in Caberra, Australia utilizing the Great Melbourne Telescope to search for minor planets beyond Neptune for the Southern Edgeworth-Kuiper belt Survey. She most recently worked in Germany at the Astrophysical Institute of Potsdam for the RAVE collaboration. RAVE, the RAdial Velocity Experiment, is an ambitious program to make the most accurate measurements of the radial velocities and chemical compositions of up to one million stars in our Milky Way. Her research interests include dwarf planets, stellar evolution, optimizing small ground based telescope for large surveys, and spectroscopy. Dr. Campbell will play a key role in the department's outreach programs and well as observing with the Bell Telescope and RCT. If you are interested in physics and astronomy outreach activies or you have ideas to expand them, please contact Dr. Campbell at rachel.campbell@wku.edu or 270.745.5940.
Dr. Michael Carini has been interested in astronomy since he was a child and received his first telescope for his 6th birthday. Watching the Gemini and Apollo missions he developed a strong interest in astronomy, which he turned into a profession. As an undergraduate, variable stars grabbed his attention, and later as a graduate student he became interested in the variability of quasars. It was also as a graduate student he discovered his love for teaching astronomy, something he has had the privilege to do at WKU for the past 12 years. His most memorable moment in astronomy involves a sauna in Finland.
Dr. Richard Gelderman agrees with a wise astronomer's adage that if a picture is worth a thousand words, then a spectrum is worth a thousand pictures. He uses low to moderate spectral resolution UV, optical, IR and radio line emission and continuum data to study active galaxies and regions of ongoing star formation in other galaxies. He also very active in outreach activities -- visiting K-12 schools, organizing public telescope viewings, speaking to public audiences, advising the Hilltopper Astronomy Club, and working with math and science educators.
Dr. Steven Gibson is originally from Michigan. He got his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 1997 and then worked in Canada, Arizona, and Puerto Rico before recently moving to WKU, where he hopes to experience some form of winter again. When time allows, he enjoys playing the trumpet and exploring natural wonders. His research uses radio telescopes to study the cold interstellar clouds from which new stars form and the spiral arms of our home galaxy, the Milky Way.
Dr. Charles H. McGruder, III is the William McCormack Professor at WKU and he obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Heidelberg. His research includes the construction of a worldwide network of fully robotic imaging telescope, extra solar planets and gamma ray bursts.
Dr. Ting-Hui Lee is originally from Taiwan. She got her Ph.D. at the University of Calgary in 2004, where the winter is too cold and too long. She then moved to Arizona and Puerto Rico (too warm!) and finally moved to WKU recently where she is looking forward to have some seasons but not a lot of snow. Her research involves multi-wavelength studies of planetary nebulae, most recently investigating how
bipolar nebulae get their shapes.
Dr. Roger Scott is a Professor and the Director of Hardin Planetarium. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Florida in 1975, and was a Post Doctorial Associate at UF for 2.5 years. In 1978 he accepted a position at Ball State University as the Director of the BSU Planetarium and Observatory. He came to WKU in 1991. At WKU he created a yearly summer Astronomy and Space Science Workshop for Teachers that was held from 1992 to 1997. He is currently the campus director of the Kentucky Space Grant Consortium and the WKU Space Grant Outreach Coordinator. He also writes and presents programs for Hardin Planetarium.
Dr. Louis-Gregory Strolger is an Assistant Professor. He completed his Ph.D. in 2003 at the University of Michigan and came to WKU in 2005. He focuses his research on supernova cosmology and dark energy, supernova rates, galaxy enrichment and star formation, gamma ray bursts and their connection to supernovae and the design and operation of a globally networked, fully autonomous astronomical observatories.
Dr. Sandra Clements , Visiting Professor
Dr. Richard Hackney was a Professor and passed away in March 2007. Richard completed his B.S. degree in Engineering Physics at the University of Tennessee in 1966, his M.S. in Physics at U.T. in 1966, and his Ph.D in Astronomy at the University of Florida in 1972. He received the Douglas V. Roseberry Award as Outstanding Senior Physics Major while at U.T. He had been a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Western Kentucky University since 1972, Director of NASA Kentucky Space Grant Consortium since 1992, and Director of Kentucky NASA EPSCOR Program since 1994. He served as a member of the Executive Committee of the National Council of Space Grant Directors and Board of Directors of the National Space Grant Foundation.
Dr. Karen Hackney was a Professor, and is the former Director of the Kentucky
Space Grant Consortium. She completed her Ph.D. in 1973 from the University of Florida and has since 1992 been deeply engaged in proposing for, developing, and administering two NASA-funded programs that benefit Kentucky and Western until her retirement in 2009. The Kentucky Space Grant Consortium and the Kentucky NASA EPSCoR Program are developing research and teaching infrastructure throughout the Commonwealth. More than $9M in federal and state funding has supported more than 400 faculty and student projects throughout Kentucky, including more than 90 at Western. Information about the programs and their continuing opportunities can be found at
http://www.wku.edu/ksgc/.
Dr. Gerald Lehmacher , Research Assistant, now an Associate Professor at Clemson University
Dr. Sergey Marchenko Visiting Professor, now at Goddard Space Flight Center
Whitney Wills Richardson is a technician for Bell Observatory. She graduate from WKU in 2003 and is very excited to be working with the largest optical telescope in the state of Kentucky. Her interests also include photography, the great outdoors, gardening and movies.
Dr. David Barnaby , Former Observatory Education Scientist. Dr. Barnaby is currently working for an Aeronautical Firm in Albuquerque, NM.
Johnny Jennings , former Research Associate that worked with Dr. Charles McGruder on: COMPARISON OF THE DISK DIFFRACTION PATTERN WITH THE STRAIGHT-EDGE DIFFRACTION PATTERN IN OCCULTATIONS
Dr. John Noble , former Research Associate and is now an Upper School Math Teacher at The Chapin School in New York City. (Student Rob Taylor is in the background of this photo)