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Enjoy TAO in another Language (we have a big planet): ORION is a local science and engineering oriented group that supports astronomy public events, field trips and lectures on current related topics. Group activities are centered in Oak Ridge and at TAO. Orion members support the Tamke Allan Observatory family nights on the first and second Saturday of each month. Monthly meetings are held at the Roane State Community College, Golf Building, Oak Ridge Campus, on third Wednesday evenings at 1900 h (7:00 PM). Local astronomers participate in TAO Stargaze events.. TAO serves as the center for astronomy classes, optical astronomy and radio astronomy observing as well as and public stargazes on the first and third Saturdays of each month. To subscribe to ORION news items, send an email to orionastronomy+subscribe@groups.io
TAO Pleiades Cluster Status
In doing radio astronomy, TAO supports the Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers (SARA). SARA materials and ideas turned up at the TAOSON exhibits at the 2010 Rockwood Fall Festival in Rockwood, TN: IDEAS Perspectives on good astronomy occasionally appear on the Bad Astronomy Blog, at http://www.badastronomy.com/intro.html |
TAO Public Stargazes POSTPONED
Check here for updates
In the future, expect
"Stars and Progress" by David Fields
"Astro-Tech: Telescope Control" by Rob Scott
We enjoyed Solar-planetary viewing, satellite communications, and a special event Amateur Radio Station. Here's a photo of our STEM teacher's group, learning "From Earth to the Stars with STEM" on Dec. 8: .
Dark skies on a night in December revealed Aurora from TAO (note our weather station). Photo by Astronomy class student Robert Quinn.
The following sunset photo was taken on Astronomy Day, May 7, 2006.
Sometimes our POD actually glows. The source of the light is something that visitors are encouraged to discover.
Solar Photos Here are photos from Heather Fries showing the sunset, and some of our visitors.
M15, M27 and M33
by Roy Morrow (above) Astrophotography at TAO TAO astronomy students visited UT and built a scintillation detector containing several plastic scintillators and 4 photomultipliers. The complete cosmic ray detection system is now in place and TAO is part of the TEnnessee Cosmic ray Observatory Project (TECOP). |
Find the Observatory TAO Radio Astronomy
Radio Astronomy 3. "Data Relay from Remote Sensing Instrumentation" June 17: Radio Astronomy 4. "More on Radio Astronomy and EM Spectra" Radio Astronomy 5. "How did our VLF Radios become SDR Radios?" Radio Astronomy 6. "Radio
Transmitter for GPS and Data Relay"
July 15: Radio Astronomy 7. "Astronomy when the Clouds Appear" Aug. 5: Radio Astronomy 8: "The Aug. 21, 2017 Eclipse and Radio Astronomy" Aug. 19: Radio Astronomy 9: "Radio Astronomy: Signal bounmces from the Moon, and the Aug. 21 Eclipse" Nov. 17, 2018: Radio Astronomy 10: TAOsat and the European Astro-Pi Initiative Feb 2, 2019: Radio Astronomy 11: Can the US have something like the ESA Astro-Pi Initiative
Radio Astronomy is one focus of our TAO activities. Here is an image of a poster showing how we are using the Itty Bitty Telescope (IBT) as part of the SARA-NRAO Radio Navigator's Group (click for full size, and we are happy to share the poster). Maryville Scouts visited us on March 5, 2016 Scoutmaster Chris brought Troop 700 from Maryville and they filled the classroom. What a group -- with questions and a lot of interest in learning how to find Jupiter (and moons) with our 8" refractor. They were already a part of the TAO action since it was one of their Eagle Scouts who built our camping area in our woods. They brought us coffee and 3 types of strudle (!) and we shared our telescopes (Thanks Jan, DR, and George), Jim Long's Spagetti, 2 kinds of bread, cookies, chips, etc. It was a beautiful evening, after those clouds cleared.
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