The University of Utah will celebrate the initial observations or "first light" of its new $860,000 research telescope in southwest Utah during a Wednesday, Nov. 11 symposium and reception on the Salt Lake City campus.
The University of Utah says it's planning a celebration to mark the initial observations -- or "first light" -- of its new $860,000 research telescope. The new 32-inch reflecting telescope located at the Willard Eccles Observatory near Milford, Utah, took its first pictures the night of Oct. 15, officials said. That event will be celebrated next Wednesday during a symposium and reception at the university's Salt Lake City campus. The new observatory, with a telescope built by DFM Engineering, is located at an elevation of about 9,600 feet on Frisco Peak, near Milford, Utah.
Frisco Peak offers a favourable place to study the sky The University of Utah soon will have a presence on a narrow, remote Beaver County mountaintop where scientists can peer deep into the universe spread across a diamond-studded night sky. With the naked eye, "you can see at least 10,000 stars," said Wayne Springer, an associate professor in the school's department of physics and astronomy, and director of the project to build an observatory on Frisco Peak, northwest of Milford. From an observatory, the star count is limitless.