Astronomical research today is increasingly becoming multi-disciplinary as oftentimes many research disciplines can contribute to help solve a scientific question. Astronomy Across the Spectrum is the research theme for UND Astronomy and is seen in the multi-wavelength observatories that UND is developing and operating - both for research and education purposes. What follows is a description of the observatories being developed by UND and the professional astronomical research occurring at the university:

Optical astronomy: A Meade classic 16-inch LX200 telescope is coupled with an SBIG STL-6303e CCD that allows UBVRI broadband photometry as well as RGB CCD color imaging. This telescope is Internet controllable and is used for undergraduate and graduate student research and education.

Radio astronomy: A Small Radio Telescope (SRT) purchased from the MIT Haystack Observatory will be installed during Summer 2006. Testing and calibration will follow with the operational date targeted for September 1, 2006. The SRT will be used for SpSt 526, a graduate-level observational astronomy class offered by the Department of Space Studies. The SRT is designed to observe at the L-band at 1.42 GHz.

Solar astronomy: H-alpha and Ca-K solar telescopes from Coronado Instruments will be piggyback mounted to an 8-inch telescope and equipped with web cameras that will stream images of the Sun to the Internet. Installation will occur during Summer 2006 with a target operational date of September 1, 2006. When operating, students and the public will be able to visit this web site to monitor the activity of the Sun and use these images for a variety of educational projects.

Professional research: Currently, Dr. Mike Gaffey and Dr. Paul Hardersen study asteroids using near-infrared (0.7 to 2.5 microns) reflectance spectroscopy to constrain the surface mineralogy of main-belt and near-Earth asteroids. Dr. Gaffey is currently funded from the NASA Near-Earth Object Observations (NEOO) program and Dr. Hardersen is funded by the NASA Planetary Astronomy program. Asteroid spectroscopic research utilizes the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) on Mauna Kea, Hawaii (http://irtfweb.ifa.hawaii.edu ).