Robinson Observatory

 

 

Welcome to Robinson Observatory!


Robinson Observatory (RO) is a research and education facility of the University of Central Florida. It is run by the faculty and students of the Planetary Sciences Group and of the Astronomy Society in the Department of Physics. The current director is Dr. Yan Fernandez. Have a question or a comment? Contact us by telephoning +1-407-8232805 or (better yet) by sending an email to planets@physics.ucf.edu.

Looking for Open House info? Click here.

 

News (May 6):

  • Currently, we're only planning on a couple events over the summer. To wit:
  • On May 16 and 17 (rainday 18), we'll have Open Houses in conjunction with the Science Olympiad National Tournament. These events will happen from 9 pm to 10:30 pm. Then in the late afternoon/early evening of June 5, we will be watching the Transit of Venus, an event that won't happen again until the 22nd Century. We'll have details posted in the future.

 

Visitors, Scouts, and AST2002 students!

  • Click here to learn when we'll have our next RO Open House (a.k.a. Public Viewing). The events occur on alternating Wednesdays and Thursdays during UCF's Fall and Spring semesters. You, yes you, can see the wonders of the night sky through our telescopes. These events are free, and no registration or reservation is required (unless you are bringing over 25 people, then as a courtesy let us know). Parking at the Observatory is free but limited, so please try to carpool.

  • Don't know what's what in the sky? That's OK! Our knowledgeable staff will show you.

  • Interested in becoming a member of the Astronomy Society, a registered student organization dedicated to bringing astronomy to UCF's teeming masses? Contact us at ucfastroclub (at) gmail.com.

 

 

Observers and Researchers!


  • We are located near 28° 35' 30.2" N, 81° 11' 26.2" W, and at a mind-numbing and oxygen-starved 60 feet above sea level.
  • Our primary telescope is a 20-inch f/8.2 RCOS Ritchey-Chretien telescope.
  • At the Cassegrain focus of this telescope is a STL-6303E camera from Santa Barbara Instruments Group that houses a KAF-6303E 3072-by-2048 pixel CCD.
  • With our current setup, the pixel scale is 0.458 arcsec and our field of view is 23.4-by-15.6 arcmin. Typical seeing is 2 to 4 arcseconds at our site. Standard Johnson-Cousins UBVRI filters are used with the camera. We are in the process of commissioning an SGS spectrograph (also from SBIG) for use at the telescope as well.
  • Science topics that are currently being or will be investigated at RO include:

• Rotation periods of binary asteroids.

• Long-term dust-production behavior of comets.

• Photometric monitoring of variable stars.

• Exoplanet transits.

 

Some Links:

Clear Dark Sky Forcast

 

 

 

Robinson Observatory acknowledges financial support from the UCF College of Sciences, the Fund for Astrophysical Research, and LIFE@UCF.