The San Diego State University Department of Astronomy recently acquired the 10,000th eVscope from Unistellar.
The digital telescope was delivered personally by Tom Esposito, Unistellar’s Space Science Principal and Assistant Research Astronomer at the SETI Institute. Capable of 50x optical magnification, the eVscope 2 processes images with a 7.7 megapixel enhanced image resolution in seconds.
“This new telescope is a valuable addition to the department’s mission to educate students and the public,” said Department Chair Eric Sandquist.
Introductory astronomy classes and the Schwartz Astronomical Society, an SDSU student group, regularly hold star parties on campus to observe astronomical phenomena with and without telescopes.
Schwartz Astronomical Society president, Thomas Tran, said, “I am beyond excited to get my hands on the new eVscope! It will be such an amazing resource for our students who want to further their passion for the night sky.”
In the past, star party attendees have used the department’s 8-inch and 10-inch telescopes. The Unistellar eVscope 2 and mobile app promises simultaneous viewing for multiple students and may allow for enhanced viewing on SDSU’s San Diego campus where there is a fair amount of light pollution.
The eVscope 2 can generate images based on collecting 100 times more light per second than a telescope of the same size, making it easier to bring pictures of faint objects to the public. It will complement the university’s 40-inch research telescope, located at the Mount Laguna Observatory, where the night sky is much darker and clearer than in San Diego.
Astronomy professor William Welsh, said the new eVscope 2 may also facilitate undergraduate thesis projects, “I anticipate students will be able to use the telescope to participate in global research sponsored by Unistellar and to learn about telescope optics and detectors. They may even be able to acquire data to support the exoplanet research Jerry Orosz and I do.”
