It looks like an observatory, to study the skies day or night, is coming to Jefferson College in Hillsboro.
Work to build the observatory could start as early as this fall, and it would take at least several months to complete the initial stage of the project, said Daryl Gehbauer, the college’s vice president of finance and administration.
Plans call for the observatory to be built on the far north end of the Hillsboro campus, north of the Viking softball field.
An artist’s rendering of the observatory shows two buildings with “roll-off roofs,” a large patio area with electricity posts for people to plug in their electric telescopes, a wall to block vehicle head-lights from interfering with the telescopes and a domed structure that could be used for observations, said Don Ficken of the St. Louis Astronomical Society, who gave a presentation on the project near the start of the June 20 Jefferson College Board of Trustees meeting.
Robert Brazzle, Jefferson College assistant professor of physics, also helped with the presentation.
He said the observatory would be a recruiting tool to draw students to the college.
“I think this would be a real feather in our cap,” Brazzle said.
Ficken said those behind the project hope to have the first phase of the project completed for use by the spring of 2020.
“That will depend on which direction we take (with plans),” Ficken said. “Probably, it will be spring next year before it’s operational.”
He said there’s no estimate for how much it will cost to build the observatory because it’s a large project that will be built in phases.
However, the college board included $38,000 for the project in the fiscal year 2020 budget, which was approved at the meeting.
The Astronomical Society will help with the project, including raising funds for it, said Ficken, who is originally from Jefferson County and gave numerous presentations about the Aug. 21, 2017, total solar eclipse prior to the big event.
He said the $38,000 from the college is merely to get the project started.
“We will design it in phases,” he said. “The $38,000 is for working on the ground – maybe a patio, maybe a storage area.
Ficken, a Jefferson College alum, said he sees the Hillsboro campus as a good site for an observatory because it is not too close to the bright lights of St. Louis and St. Louis County.
“It’s a nice, dark sky,” he said.
He said both the college and the community as a whole will use the observatory.
“It will be for classes and for community events,” Ficken said. “Students will be able to use it for research and classes. It can be used for special events like viewing stars at night and solar events during the day.”
Ficken, like Brazzle, said he sees the observatory as something that would attract attention to Jefferson College.
“I think it’s going to draw people from St. Louis,” he said.