Roeper 7th Grade McMath Obs

The Roeper seventh grade went to the McMath observatory for a field trip and this is what they found out;

Amateurs built the observatory in 1929. They weren't allowed to have a heating system because if you did, and you tried to open the shutters to look at the sun the air flow would make steamy clouds. The Shutters would open and to keep track of the same section of sky the steel dome around the telescope would have to rotate.
We also learned that solar flares make ionization there was ionization. The U.S. Air Force could use this to their advantage because they want to track who was doing Atomic testing. Atomic bombs also gave off ionization. If the sun wasn't giving off solar flares a in the area there must be atomic testing going on. Using this method they didn't have to fly out a spy plane on the people making the bombs. Fun fact: Earth is really small compared to the solarflares the sun gives off.