Thomas O’Grady
Athens News reporter Fred Night writes Jan. 11 that “an Ohio University telescope may be getting a new home at the Ridges.”
The “rather rare, historic telescope” was in need of maintenance and “disassembled” about five years ago, according to astronomy instructor Tom O’Grady. But there are plans to take it out of storage and put it back into use in a new facility.
The tentative plan is to build a facility where the old Beacon School was located on the Ridges, near the water tower. The building – which was a tuberculosis ward before it became a school – has been torn down.
“We have identified some funding to help pay for it,” according to Joe Shields, vice-resident for research and dean of the Graduate College, adding that the facility “probably” will be built. However, he cautioned that the university doesn’t “have a definite plan yet.”
“[T]he site is not yet confirmed since the Ridges Planning Committee and the University Master Plan have to be in concordance before we are assigned a site,” said David Ingram, professor and chair of OU’s Department of Physics and Astronomy. “The plan is to provide a site for the restored 10-inch telescope and a space for small telescopes that we already own.”
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