The Pine Bluff Observatory (PBO) is an
astronomical observatory
An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysical, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. H ...
located in the town of
Cross Plains, Wisconsin
Cross Plains is a village in Dane County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 4,104 at the 2020 census. The village is located partially within the Town of Cross Plains. It is part of the Madison Metropolitan Statistical Area.
History
...
(
USA) about west of
Madison Madison may refer to:
People
* Madison (name), a given name and a surname
* James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States
Place names
* Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...
. PBO is owned and operated by the
University of Wisconsin–Madison
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...
(UW-Madison). It opened in 1958, and is mainly used by students and faculty of UW-Madison for instruction and research. PBO also provides a facility for testing new instruments.
Recent research conducted at PBO includes measuring the lunar sodium tail, monitoring
circumstellar disks
A circumstellar disc (or circumstellar disk) is a torus, pancake or ring-shaped accretion disk of matter composed of gas, dust, planetesimals, asteroids, or collision fragments in orbit around a star. Around the youngest stars, they are the ...
around
Be stars, and studying the
warm ionized medium.
See also
*
Washburn Observatory
*
List of astronomical observatories
This is a list of astronomical observatories ordered by name, along with initial dates of operation (where an accurate date is available) and location. The list also includes a final year of operation for many observatories that are no longer in ...
References
External links
Department of Astronomyat University of Wisconsin–Madison
Forecasts of observing conditions.
Astronomical observatories in Wisconsin
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Buildings and structures in Dane County, Wisconsin
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