Editors Note: Photographers and reporters are welcome to attend a reception for the exhibit opening from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Oct. 4 in the planetarium lobby. The reception is not open to the public.
Fiske Planetarium at the University of Colorado at Boulder will unveil a new exhibit, "The Hubble Telescope: Images and Instruments," on Friday, Oct. 4.
The exhibit's opening will feature a free public talk and slide presentation at 7:30 p.m. by Steven Beckwith, director of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. Beckwith's talk is titled "The Universe Through the Eyes of the Hubble Space Telescope."
Fiske Planetarium Director Doug Duncan and Dennis Ebbets of Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. will present the talk a second time on Tuesday, Oct. 8, at 7:30 p.m. in the planetarium.
Those interested in attending either of the talks must call the planetarium by Oct. 1 to reserve a ticket at (303) 492-5002.
The talk will explore some of Hubble's images and what scientists have learned from the exploration. It also will focus on what the future might hold for Hubble and the Next Generation Space Telescope, which will be built by Ball in collaboration with TRW.
The new exhibit, located in the planetarium lobby, features many of Hubble's "greatest hits" and some hardware from the telescope. It also will highlight Hubble observations obtained by CU faculty and research staff, according to Duncan, who operated one of the original instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope, known as the Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph, which was built by Ball.
The ultimate successor to this now retired spectrograph is the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, now under construction at Ball and at CU-Boulder's Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy. This new spectrograph is slated for installation on Hubble in spring 2004.
The exhibit will be on display in Fiske's lobby for the foreseeable future, Duncan said.
For more information about Fiske Planetarium and the programs it offers to the public and educators, call (303) 492-5001 or visit the Web site at .