Lake Afton Public Observatory
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Lake Afton Public Observatory
Lake Afton Public Observatory (LAPO) is an astronomical observatory located southwest of Wichita, Kansas in a rural area of Sedgwick County on the north side of Lake Afton. At the heart of the observatory is a F/13 Ritchey–Chrétien telescope along with a piggyback mounted 6-inch (150 mm) F/8 apochromatic refractor. The facility also features an exhibit room filled with educational material on stargazing, the physics of light, and the history of Astronomy. There is also an observing area to the North of the building for local astronomers to set up their own telescopes. The observatory offers programs for the public every weekend throughout the year along with various private, and school programs throughout the week. History It was established in 1979 through the cooperation and support of Sedgwick County, the City of Wichita, and Wichita State University's Fairmount Center for Science and Mathematics Education. The Observatory was operated by Wichita State University's Fairmo ...
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Wichita, Kansas
Wichita ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Sedgwick County, Kansas, Sedgwick County. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population of the city was 397,532. The Wichita metro area had a population of 647,610 in 2020. It is located in south-central Kansas on the Arkansas River. Wichita began as a trading post on the Chisholm Trail in the 1860s and was incorporated as a city in 1870. It became a destination for Cattle drives in the United States, cattle drives traveling north from Texas to Kansas railroads, earning it the nickname "Cowtown".Miner, Prof. Craig (Wichita State Univ. Dept. of History), ''Wichita: The Magic City'', Wichita Historical Museum Association, Wichita, KS, 1988Howell, Angela and Peg Vines, ''The Insider's Guide to Wichita'', Wichita Eagle & Beacon Publishing, Wichita, KS, 1995 Wyatt Earp served as a police officer in Wichita for around one year before going to Dodge City, Kansas, Dodge City. In the ...
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Kansas
Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named after the Kansas River, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native Americans who lived along its banks. The tribe's name (natively ') is often said to mean "people of the (south) wind" although this was probably not the term's original meaning. For thousands of years, what is now Kansas was home to numerous and diverse Native American tribes. Tribes in the eastern part of the state generally lived in villages along the river valleys. Tribes in the western part of the state were semi-nomadic and hunted large herds of bison. The first Euro-American settlement in Kansas occurred in 1827 at Fort Leavenworth. The pace of settlement accelerated in the 1850s, in the midst of political wars over the slavery debate. Wh ...
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Telescope
A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, absorption, or reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally meaning only an optical instrument using lenses, curved mirrors, or a combination of both to observe distant objects, the word ''telescope'' now refers to a wide range of instruments capable of detecting different regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, and in some cases other types of detectors. The first known practical telescopes were refracting telescopes with glass lenses and were invented in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 17th century. They were used for both terrestrial applications and astronomy. The reflecting telescope, which uses mirrors to collect and focus light, was invented within a few decades of the first refracting telescope. In the 20th century, many new types of telescopes were invented, including radio telescopes in the 1930s and infrared telescopes in the 1960s. Etymology The word ''telescope'' was coin ...
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Astronomy
Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and chronology of the Universe, evolution. Objects of interest include planets, natural satellite, moons, stars, nebulae, galaxy, galaxies, and comets. Relevant phenomena include supernova explosions, gamma ray bursts, quasars, blazars, pulsars, and cosmic microwave background radiation. More generally, astronomy studies everything that originates beyond atmosphere of Earth, Earth's atmosphere. Cosmology is a branch of astronomy that studies the universe as a whole. Astronomy is one of the oldest natural sciences. The early civilizations in recorded history made methodical observations of the night sky. These include the Babylonian astronomy, Babylonians, Greek astronomy, Greeks, Indian astronomy, Indians, Egyptian astronomy, Egyptians, Chinese astronomy, Chinese, Maya civilization, Maya, and many anc ...
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Observatory
An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysical, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. Historically, observatories were as simple as containing an astronomical sextant (for measuring the distance between stars) or Stonehenge (which has some alignments on astronomical phenomena). Astronomical observatories Astronomical observatories are mainly divided into four categories: space-based, airborne, ground-based, and underground-based. Ground-based observatories Ground-based observatories, located on the surface of Earth, are used to make observations in the radio and visible light portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Most optical telescopes are housed within a dome or similar structure, to protect the delicate instruments from the elements. Telescope domes have a slit or other opening in the roof that can be opened during ...
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Sedgwick County, Kansas
Sedgwick County ( county code: SG) is located in the U.S. state of Kansas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 523,824, making it the second-most populous county in Kansas. Its county seat is Wichita, the most populous city in the state. History Early history For many millennia, the Great Plains of North America was inhabited by nomadic Native Americans. From the 16th century to 18th century, the Kingdom of France claimed ownership of large parts of North America. In 1762, after the French and Indian War, France secretly ceded New France to Spain, per the Treaty of Fontainebleau. In 1802, Spain returned most of the land to France. In 1803, most of the land for modern day Kansas was acquired by the United States from France as part of the 828,000 square mile Louisiana Purchase for 2.83 cents per acre. In 1848, after the Mexican–American War, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo with Spain brought into the United States all or part of land for ten future states, inclu ...
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Lake Afton
Lake Afton is a man-made recreational lake in Sedgwick County, Kansas, United States, and within the Lake Afton Park. It is located east of the intersection of Viola Rd (263rd St W) and MacArthur Rd (39th St S), between the communities of Goddard, Garden Plain, Schulte, Viola. History Ground breaking for the dam occurred on December 29, 1939. The dam was built by Works Progress Administration workers from 1939 to 1941. It opened to the public in 1945. The Sedgwick County Commission let a contract for the construction of the Segwick County Boys Detention Home within the Park in April 1960. Lake Afton Public Observatory was constructed within the Park in the late 1970s on the north side of MacArthur Rd. Directions Lake Afton is located at 24600 W 39th St S, which is east of the intersection of Viola Rd (263rd St W) and MacArthur Rd (39th St S) in rural western Sedgwick County. MacArthur Rd is located south of U.S. Route 54 / U.S. Route 400 highway. Directions: * from ...
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Ritchey–Chrétien Telescope
A Ritchey–Chrétien telescope (RCT or simply RC) is a specialized variant of the Cassegrain telescope that has a hyperbolic primary mirror and a hyperbolic secondary mirror designed to eliminate off-axis optical errors (coma). The RCT has a wider field of view free of optical errors compared to a more traditional reflecting telescope configuration. Since the mid 20th century, a majority of large professional research telescopes have been Ritchey–Chrétien configurations; some well-known examples are the Hubble Space Telescope, the Keck telescopes and the ESO Very Large Telescope. History The Ritchey–Chrétien telescope was invented in the early 1910s by American astronomer George Willis Ritchey and French astronomer Henri Chrétien. Ritchey constructed the first successful RCT, which had an aperture diameter of in 1927 (e.g. Ritchey 24-inch reflector). The second RCT was a instrument constructed by Ritchey for the United States Naval Observatory; that telescope is st ...
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Goddard, Kansas
Goddard is a city in Sedgwick County, Kansas, United States, and a suburb of Wichita. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 5,084. History In 1883, Ezekiel Wilder purchased farmland on the planned railway of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway south of Blendon, Kansas, approximately west of Wichita. There, he established the town of Goddard in honor of J. F. Goddard, former third vice-president of the ATSF Railway. The railroad reached Goddard in 1884, and a post office was established there the same year. Several buildings were relocated from Blendon, including the town hall and the planned Methodist church. Goddard was officially incorporated in 1910. On June 23, 1969, an F4 tornado struck Goddard. No fatalities occurred, but six people were injured. In recent decades as Wichita has expanded westward, a growing number of commuters have settled in Goddard, transforming it from a rural agricultural community into a suburb. Geography Goddard is l ...
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Interstate 235 (Kansas)
Interstate 235 (I-235) in Kansas is a north–south bypass spur route of I-35 that travels through the western part of Wichita. Its northern terminus is at an interchange with I-135/ U.S. Highway 81 (US-81)/ K-15/K-96/ K-254 north of the city, where the freeway continues east as K-254. The southern is at I-135/US-81 shortly before US-81 separates from I-135 and I-135 connects to I-35 (here known as the Kansas Turnpike The Kansas Turnpike is a , freeway-standard toll road that lies entirely within the US state of Kansas. It runs in a general southwest–northeast direction from the Oklahoma border to Kansas City. It passes through several major Kansas cities, ...) at I-135's own southern terminus. History Aside from the Kansas Turnpike, I-235 is the first component of the Interstate Highway System to be built in Wichita. The vast majority of its length, running from its original southern terminus at the Kansas Turnpike to the Broadway Avenue interchange in north W ...
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List Of Observatories
This is a list of astronomical observatories ordered by name, along with initial dates of operation (where an accurate date is available) and location. The list also includes a final year of operation for many observatories that are no longer in operation. While other sciences, such as volcanology and meteorology, also use facilities called observatories for research and observations, this list is limited to observatories that are used to observe celestial objects. Astronomical observatories are mainly divided into four categories: space-based, airborne, ground-based, and underground-based. Many modern telescopes and observatories are located in space to observe astronomical objects in wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum that cannot penetrate the Earth's atmosphere (such as ultraviolet radiation, X-rays, and gamma rays) and are thus impossible to observe using ground-based telescopes. Being above the atmosphere, these space observatories can also avoid the effects of atm ...
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Wichita State University
Wichita State University (WSU) is a public research university in Wichita, Kansas, United States. It is governed by the Kansas Board of Regents. The university offers more than 60 undergraduate degree programs in more than 200 areas of study in six colleges. The university's graduate school offers 44 master's degrees in more than 100 areas and a specialist in education degree. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity". Wichita State University also hosts classes at four satellite locations: WSU West in Maize, WSU South in Derby, and the WSU Downtown Center that houses the university's Center for Community Support & Research, the Department of Physician Assistant, and the Department of Physical Therapy. A quarter-mile northeast of campus, the Advanced Education in General Dentistry building, built in 2011, houses classrooms and a dental clinic. It is adjacent to the university's Eugene M. Hughes Metropolitan Complex, where many of WSU noncredi ...
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