Dark Sky Observatory

The Dark Sky Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by Appalachian State University . It is located 9km east of Deep Gap, North Carolina, off of the Blue Ridge Parkway, and 32km east of the ASU campus in Boone, North Carolina It was established in 1981, and is used for research, instruction, and public viewing events. The Cline Visitors' Center was completed in 2011.TelescopesA 32in Ritchey–Chrétien telescope was built by DFM Engineering, as was the equatorial fork mount. It is the primary research tool at the observatory.A 18in Cassegrain telescope on a German equatorial mount was installed in 1981. It is used to monitor eclipsing binary stars and was once used to observe Mira variable stars. The 17in Dean Glace Telescope is a corrected Dall-Kirkham telescope made by Planewave and set on a Mathis equatorial fork mount. It is shared between ASU and astrophotographer Dean Glace, who donated the telescope. A 14in C-14 Schmidt-Cassegrain Celestron reflector. The 14-inch remote robotic telescope, DSO-14, was assembled by Adam Smith for his Master's thesis project in 2009. It is automatically controlled by the Skynet Robotic Telescope Network in coordination with UNC-Chapel Hill. As well as offering queue-scheduled observing to both scientists and the general public, it is automatically commanded to observe the optical afterglows of Gamma-ray bursts within seconds of notification from the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission.