The Robinson Observatory was home to a weekly open house Wednesday night. Students and community members could peer into the telescopes set up on the lawn in front of the observatory, which houses a larger 20 inch telescope.
About 30 to 40 people arrived at 8 p.m. to get a chance to view heavenly bodies as the moon, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune and many other star clusters and galaxies.
The crowd ranged from infants to grandparents, and included many UCF students, some of whom were volunteers and others who had just decided to stop by for a look.
Members of the astronomy society set up three to four telescopes. They showed members of the public how to look through one and explained what it is they are looking at.
Emily Kramer, a graduate student of planetary sciences, works regularly at the observatory and enjoys working with people who want to see some stars.
"I like seeing the reaction people get when they see something for the first time," Kramer said.
After looking through the smaller telescopes, groups of people were invited upstairs into the observatory. According to Yan Fernandez, director of the Robinson Observatory, the observatory houses a $150,000 space-viewing set up controlled by computer.
Visitors found themselves in a rotating room with many computer screens that displayed various graphs and coordinates. In the center was a large telescope that peered into the sky through a large gap in the ceiling.
A researcher at the observatory explained the telescope to the visitors and shared with them some images from space shot by the camera that works with the telescope.
"Being out around this type of technology is really neat. It's mostly stuff I just read about," said Ryan George, a junior biotechnology major.
The Robinson Observatory was renovated in 2007 to include the new telescope and computer technology. Opened in 1996, the Robinson Observatory gives students an opportunity that many other colleges do not offer.
The University of Florida owns a comparable observatory, with similar telescopes, but the observatory is far from campus.
UCF's observatory is located on campus just off of Libra Drive, across from the police station.
"It gives students the experience that they would not get anywhere else," Fernandez said. "It gives them the chance to connect what they have learned in class or heard on the news with what they can see."
The Robinson Observatory is used for research and funded by the College of Sciences. Fernandez said graduate students are using the telescope to study the properties of asteroids, as well as fundamental questions about the solar system.
The Robinson Observatory has an open house every week, rotating between Wednesdays and Thursdays. They begin at 8 p.m. and end at 10 p.m. The schedule is subject to change due to weather. For more information and the open house schedule, visit the Robinson Observatory website at http://planets.ucf.edu/observatory.
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