An informal collaborative association between the University of North Texas and The University of Dallas, along with two private organizations, The Boyce Research Initiatives and Education Foundation and the Institute for Citizen Astronomy, has led to the successful restoration, update, and installation of a .5 meter CDK telescope system to be used for student photometric and astrometric research. This system, located at the Dark Sky Observatory Collaborative near the McDonald Observatory in far West Texas, is the largest scope to come online as a result of the collaboration which began two years ago.

The .5 meter telescope was custom designed and constructed by Hubble Optics, whose president, Tong Liu, personally oversaw the construction and installation of the telescope. Hubble Optics has delivered custom-designed telescopes to over 44 countries.

The system will go into service immediately to capture data on exoplanets, variable stars, and near-earth objects. Several teams from each of the collaborative partners have already scheduled time on the system.

After the teams have had time to acclimate to this powerful, new system; plans are progressing for the installation of a high-resolution echelle spectrograph, which will allow the collaborations' members to complete radial velocity observations on objects that are moving around in our galaxy, as well as other parts of our universe. This system will then become one of the most high-resolution spectrographic systems readily available for small-telescope observations of brighter celestial objects.

The choice of the Dark Sky Observatory was strongly supported by the collaboration members due to its very good seeing (1 arcsecond), as well as its location under one of the darkest skies in the northern hemisphere.

The collaboration has plans to develop sustainable revenue sources from other universities, as well as advanced amateurs wishing to use its facilities. For more information about this equipment or the collaboration, please contact Ron DiIulio of UNT Astronomy at Ronald.Diiulio@unt.edu.