Prairie Observatory
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The Prairie Observatory was constructed near Oakland, Illinois by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Department of Astronomy. The site was adjacent to Walnut Point State Park and provided an accessible but dark sky site only 35 miles from campus. The telescope went into operation in January 1969 and closed on April 1, 1981.Smarr, L.L. (1982
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Astronomy, Report
''Bulletin of the Astronomical Society'', vol. 14, p. 209-222.
The observatory's principle telescope was a 40-inch (1.0 meter)
Cassegrain reflector The Cassegrain reflector is a combination of a primary concave mirror and a secondary convex mirror, often used in optical telescopes and radio antennas, the main characteristic being that the optical path folds back onto itself, relative to th ...
by Astro Mechanics Inc. The telescope itself cost about $244,000, most of that money coming from a National Science Foundation grant. The dome was 40-foot in diameter and connected to a main building that housed an apartment for astronomers. The telescope had an off-axis equatorial mount and was equipped for direct photography, spectroscopy, and photoelectric photometry. Most of the 80 research papers produced over the 11-years life of the observatory used a multicolor single-channel photometer.Olson, E.C. (1984
"Photoelectric Photometry in the Flat Midwest"
''International Amateur-Professional Photoelectric Photometry Communication'', No. 15, p.5.
The photographic glass slides produced by the camera and the spectrograph are now stored in the university archives (series number 15/3/13). In addition to the 40-inch telescope, a smaller dome housed a 4-inch Ross-Fecker camera. The camera was purchased in 1938 and was originally located in an observatory in Urbana. It remained in use until the telescope was vandalized in the 1980s. The photographic plates produced using that camera are now stored at Yerkes Observatory. Yerkes Observatory (201
Photograph Plates Collection
/ref> The 15-foot dome for that telescope was returned to Champaign in 1986 where it is used by the local Champaign-Urbana Astronomical Society.Leake, Dav

Accessed" May 20, 2016
The 40-inch telescope was moved to San Diego State University’s Mount Laguna Observatory in April 1981 where it is still in active use.MLO 40-inch telescope
San Diego State University Department of Astronomy, Mount Laguna Observatory. Accessed: May 20, 2016
The building in Walnut Point State Park is abandoned.


See also

* List of astronomical observatories


References

{{Portal bar, Illinois, Astronomy, Stars, Spaceflight, Outer space, Solar System, Education, Science Astronomical observatories in Illinois Buildings and structures of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign