Telescope installation launches new ERAU degree program
The Daytona Beach News-Journal
February 4, 2014 – Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University is now home to the largest research telescope in Florida.
School leaders hope the addition will help them attract students to a new bachelor’s degree program in astronomy and astrophysics and expand research opportunities for faculty and students.
Crews used a crane to hoist the 2-ton telescope, still in pieces, up to the fifth floor of the new Colleges of Arts and Sciences building on Monday. It’s not working yet because the school is waiting for a mirror that will be inserted into the telescope within the next month. A 15-foot-tall retractable dome covers the instrument. The meter-long telescope, and six smaller portable telescopes that will be mounted on a terrace outside the dome, are valued at about $2 million.