Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (PARI) (pronounced ''perry'') is a non-profit astronomical observatory located in the

Pisgah National Forest Pisgah National Forest is a National Forest in the Appalachian Mountains of western North Carolina. It is administered by the United States Forest Service, part of the United States Department of Agriculture. The Pisgah National Forest is complet ...

near

Balsam Grove, North Carolina Balsam Grove is an unincorporated community located in Transylvania County, North Carolina within Pisgah National Forest and Nantahala National Forest The Nantahala National Forest ( /ˌnæntəˈheɪlə/), is the largest of the four national fo ...

. PARI operates multiple

radio telescopes A radio telescope is a specialized antenna and radio receiver used to detect radio waves from astronomical radio sources in the sky. Radio telescopes are the main observing instrument used in radio astronomy, which studies the radio frequency p ...

and

optical telescopes An optical telescope is a telescope that gathers and focuses light mainly from the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum, to create a magnified image for direct visual inspection, to make a photograph, or to collect data through electr ...

for research and teaching purposes. The observatory is affiliated with the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sy ...

system through the Pisgah Astronomical Research and Science Educational Center (PARSEC).

History

PARI is located at the site of the former Rosman Satellite Tracking Station, which was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

) in 1962. The site was part of the worldwide Spacecraft Tracking and Data Acquisition Network and an integral communications link for the manned space programs Project Gemini and Project Apollo. The facility was transferred to the

National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collecti ...

(NSA) in 1981. Known as the Rosman Research Station, it was used as a signals intelligence gathering facility. The site was closed by the NSA in 1995 and transferred to the

United States Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency inc ...

. After several years of inactivity, the federal government proposed to dismantle the facility. Recognizing the utility of the site, a small group of interested scientists and businessmen formed a not-for-profit foundation, which acquired the site in January 1999. It has continued capital investment at the facility, enabling updates of the equipment for astronomical observation purposes. A staff of professional astronomers, engineers, and other scientists work at the observatory.

Research and education

PARI hosts research and study programs with Furman University,

Clemson University Clemson University () is a public land-grant research university in Clemson, South Carolina. Founded in 1889, Clemson is the second-largest university in the student population in South Carolina. For the fall 2019 semester, the university enr ...

Virginia Tech Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also has educational facilities in six re ...

South Carolina State University South Carolina State University (SCSU or SC State) is a public, historically black, land-grant university in Orangeburg, South Carolina, United States. It is the only public, historically black land-grant institution in South Carolina, is a memb ...

and

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

. The PARI site has hosted several professional astronomy meetings, including the Small Radio Telescope Conference in August 2001, the Gamma-Ray Bursts Today and Tomorrow Conference in August 2002 and the Workshop on a National Plan for Preserving Astronomical Photographic Plates in November 2007. PARI hosts several educational opportunities, including the

Talent Identification Program. PARI also sponsors astronomy educational programs using the portable StarLab planetarium. These have been presented to more than 40,000 people in

Western North Carolina Western North Carolina (often abbreviated as WNC) is the region of North Carolina which includes the Appalachian Mountains; it is often known geographically as the state's Mountain Region. It contains the highest mountains in the Eastern United ...

Facilities

The principal radio research instruments at PARI are two 26-meter radio telescopes and a 4.6-meter radio telescope named Smiley. These have been adapted for precision tracking of celestial radio sources using multiple frequencies. Smiley is used for remote classroom teaching of astronomy by students in the US and worldwide. Smiley was given its pleasant face around 1982 as a greeting to overflying foreign surveillance satellites. PARI is home to the Astronomical Photographic Data Archive (APDA), a site to help preserve astronomical photographic plates. These plates were the primary recording medium for astronomy data from the late 19th century until the 1980s. It is estimated that over two million of the plates are held in astronomy facilities around the world and are in jeopardy of being destroyed because of a lack of storage facilities. An Exhibit Gallery displays a collection of rare meteorites and minerals, as well as NASA Space Shuttle artifacts. Many of the latter are from space flights. Image:17 22 055 A7 engine.jpg, Redstone rocket engine on display Image:17 22 008 fossil.jpg,

Knightia ''Knightia'' is an extinct genus of clupeid bony fish that lived in the freshwater lakes and rivers of North America and Asia during the Eocene epoch. The genus was erected by David Starr Jordan in 1907, in honor of the late University of Wyom ...

fossils from the

Green River Formation The Green River Formation is an Eocene geologic formation that records the sedimentation in a group of intermountain lakes in three basins along the present-day Green River in Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. The sediments are deposited in very fine ...

Image:17 22 015 ferns.jpg, Carboniferous Ferns Image:17 22 112 petrified wood.jpg, Petrified Wood Image:17 22 062 amethyst.jpg, Brazilian Amethyst Image:17 22 070 toluca.jpg, Toluca meteorite Image:17 22 078 meteorite.jpg, Seymchan meteorite Image:17 22 086 meteor.jpg,

Canyon Diablo Meteorite The Canyon Diablo meteorite refers to the many fragments of the asteroid that created Meteor Crater (also called Barringer Crater), Arizona, United States. Meteorites have been found around the crater rim, and are named for nearby Canyon Diabl ...

Image:17 22 104 meteorite.jpg, Fragment of D'Orbigny meteorite Image:17 22 094 agate.jpg,

Agate Agate () is a common rock formation, consisting of chalcedony and quartz as its primary components, with a wide variety of colors. Agates are primarily formed within volcanic and metamorphic rocks. The ornamental use of agate was common in Anci ...

s collected between 1920 - 1950

Notes

General references

*Goldman, Stuart J. "Mission Possible: The Promise of Pisgah." ''

Sky & Telescope ''Sky & Telescope'' (''S&T'') is a monthly American magazine covering all aspects of amateur astronomy, including the following: *current events in astronomy and space exploration; *events in the amateur astronomy community; *reviews of astronomic ...

''. October 2001:42. *Hargreaves, Lynley.
"Spy Station Retooled into Astronomy Institute"
''

Physics Today ''Physics Today'' is the membership magazine of the American Institute of Physics. First published in May 1948, it is issued on a monthly schedule, and is provided to the members of ten physics societies, including the American Physical Society. ...

''. March 2001 Volume 54, number 3.

External links

Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (PARI)

Virginia Tech Eight Meter Transient Array
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Astronomical observatories in North Carolina {{Portal, United States North C Buildings and structures in North Carolina by type Tourist attractions in North Carolina ...