History
The Southeastern
Association for Research in Astronomy (SARA) consortium was
formed in 1989 with the objective to create a mutually beneficial
association of institutions in the southeastern United States which
have relatively small departments of physics and astronomy. The
consortium was formed in response to a 1988 letter of opportunity
addressed to the American astronomical community. In April of that
year Dr. Sidney C. Wolff, director of the National Optical
Astronomy Observatories (NOAO), announced that the No. 1
36-inch telescope at the Kitt Peak National
Observatory would be decommissioned due to budget constraints.
The instrument was to be awarded (in the form of a permanent loan)
to that institution which could use it most productively, the only
provision being that the telescope be moved from the site it was
occupying. The first meeting of members of the four charter SARA
institutions was held in March 1989, and a formal proposal was
submitted to the National Science Foundation in September of that
year. SARA was notified that its proposal had been successful in
April 1990; a total of approximately thirty proposals had been
submitted. Today the 0.9-meter Cassegrain reflector is housed
within a two-story steel and aluminum structure enclosed by a
26.5-foot Ashdome. The SARA 0.9-meter observing facility is located
atop Mercedes Point (111 036'W, 31 58'N) at an altitude of 6800
feet. This location offers very stable seeing conditions and a
fairly low horizon in all directions except for the northeast. In
May of 2008 Butler University joined the SARA consortium as its
10th member.
Benefits
Though Butler University has a slightly larger telescope than
that of SARA we are unfortunately located in relatively bright
skies of Indianapolis. Though research at Holcomb
Observatory can and has been done with our 1.0-meter telescope,
the bright sky background limits us to primarily survey type
research. SARA on the other hand is located in one of the darkest
locations in the United States, Kitt Peak, AZ. At this location the
sky is roughly 100 times darker than our Indianapolis sky and
allows for viewing of much dimmer objects than would be possible
from Holcomb Observatory. Added to this
is a recently acquired southern hemisphere telescope located at Cerro
Tololo, Chile, allowing SARA members to observe the whole sky.
This SARA southern telescope should be available mid 2009.
Operation
A typical remote observing session starts with a check on the
weather in Tucson. The astronomer then logs on to the telescope
control computer using Virtual Network Computing (VNC is a platform
independent, client-based system written by AT&T Laboratories),
creates directories to hold the images, opens the dome on the
telescope, observes, closes the dome on the telescope, and log off
VNC. The actual images from the observing session are simply
transferred back to any home or office computer. VNC is remote
control software which allows you to view and fully interact with
one computer desktop (the "VNC server") using a simple program (the
"VNC viewer") on another computer desktop anywhere on the Internet.
This allows our research students to be able to access, control,
and collect data remotely on the SARA telescopes from Butler, thus
saving on significant travel costs. The software (Maxim DL) used by
the CCD cameras is identical to what us use at Butler University,
so our students observing with these telescopes will not need much
additional training. This same program is also used for image
reduction and analysis. The fact that the students become the
primary data/image takers and analyzers better prepares for a
career in astronomy and astrophysics.