Baker Observatory
astronomical observatory in Marshfield, Missouri
The William G. and Retha Stone Baker Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by Missouri State University. It is located in Marshfield, Missouri.
About the observatory
The William G and Retha Stone Baker Observatory is located ten miles northwest of Marshfield in Webster County (off Route 38 on Old Hillcrest Road). The Observatory houses a 14-inch (360 mm) Schmidt-Cassegrain and a 16-inch (410 mm) Cassegrain. The 16-inch Cassegrain Reflecting Telescope (with CCD attached camera) is on loan to MSU from Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. This telescope was one of the first telescopes to be used at Kitt Peak National Observatory. In comparison to observations performed by eye, the CCD camera makes this telescope as powerful as a 100-inch (2,500 mm) telescope. Missouri State recently purchased an additional 16-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain reflector which is currently being set up to allow for remote operation from campus.
The Observatory is used on clear evenings for laboratory work by students in beginning and intermediate Astronomy courses, and by advanced undergraduate students and faculty conducting Astronomical research. The Observatory houses many smaller telescopes for students to use in addition to the two large instruments.
“Baker Observatory” enters the record as astronomical observatory in Marshfield, Missouri. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Baker, Observatory and astronomical can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Baker Observatory” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.