The group is led by Prof. Elliott Horch and Prof. Dana Casetti. Other current group members at SCSU include Dr. Terry Girard, graduate students Jonathan Leonard, Xander Petroski, and Fiona Powers Özyurt, and undergraduates Ana Baculima and Sebastian Lucero.
Past graduate students (and their current affiliations) include Nicole Granucci (Quinnipiac University), Caitlin Hansen (Yale University), Paul Klaucke (Quinnipiac University), Hang Pham (Yale University), Justin Rupert (MDM Observatory), Sam Weiss (Yale University), Rich Pellegrino (SCSU), Torrie Sutherland (Apache Point Observatory), Melissa Shea (Aperture Optical Sciences), and Xavier Lesley (Ohio State University).
Group News
- August 2024: Dr. Casetti is featured in a national TV interview in Romania.
- June 2024: Graduate student Jon Leonard presents a first-author publication at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Madison, Wisconsin.
- April 2024: Dr. Horch and former group member Nicole Granucci are interviewed by Channel 3 News in conjunction with the solar eclipse that occurred on April 8th.
- March 2024: The Astronomy Minor, a joint effort between the Physics and Earth Science Departments at SCSU, is officially approved.
Current Research Projects
Astronomical Instrumentation. The group is involved in the construction of high-resolution imaging systems used with large telescopes at major observatories, and in novel, prototype high-resolution imaging systems used on campus.
Galactic Dynamics. This field studies the formation and evolution of our Milky Way galaxy in a cosmological context. The work at SCSU is focused on building and analyzing surveys of stars and stellar systems in our Galaxy and its satellites. Specifically, measurements are made of the transverse velocities of these objects, and these are combined with other properties to constrain cosmologically-motivated Milky-Way models.
Intensity Interferometry. A high-resolution technique first used in the 1950s is being revisited at SCSU with modern instrumentation. The goal is to develop and use a wirelessly connected, multiple-telescope instrument capable of measuring stellar diameters from our campus.
Speckle Imaging Surveys of Low-Mass Stars and Exoplanet Hosts. In collaboration with the RECONS Institute, Lowell Observatory, the University of Virginia, and Bridgewater State University, our group is involved with systematic high-resolution imaging surveys of K and M dwarf stars, that is, those less massive than the Sun. The work involves observing at the Apache Point Observatory 3.5-m Telescope, Lowell Observatory's Discovery Telescope, and both Gemini telescopes. The work will result in a volume-complete sample of stars for which the binary and multiple-star statistics are well-known, which will inform theories of star and planet formation.
Further astronomy activities on campus are conducted in the Earth Science Department.