About the Astronomy Program

About Astronomy

at Pomona College

The Astronomy Program at the Pomona College offers an exciting environment for undergraduate study of astronomy and astrophysics, and offers unparalleled facilities for its students, including a mountain-top 1-meter telescope, an on-campus observatory, a planetarium, and an adaptive optics research laboratory.

Classes

About Curriculum

in Astronomy and Astrophysics

Pomona College offers a wide variety of courses in astronomy and astrophysics that include Introductory Astronomy, Archaeoastronomy and World Cosmology, Introductory Astrophysics and Advanced Observational Astronomy

People

Our Faculty and Staff

Claremont Astronomy Faculty and Staff

Our faculty are active researchers and educators who innovate in the laboratory and classroom. Students are involved in a wide variety of research projects ranging from studies of Near Earth asteroids, Gamma Ray Bursts and Quasars, Blazar Monitoring, and Adaptive Optics instrumentation research.

Brackett Observatory

Pomona's Campus Observatory

Pomona College's historic Frank P. Brackett Observatory, built in 1908, houses two modern 14 Celestron telescopes on computerized Paramount systems. A variety of modern instruments, including fiber-optic fed spectrographs, an H-alpha solar telescope, and large format CCD cameras are used here for undergraduate coursework and student research projects.

Table Mountain

Pomona's mountaintop telescope

Pomona College's 1-meter telescope

Pomona College owns and operates a 1-meter telescope at Table Mountain, an observatory site at 7500 feet owned by JPL. This spectacular facility is used for faculty and student research projects and is unique for undergraduate colleges of our size

Public Outreach and Planetarium

Public Education Programs for the Public, Schools, and Teachers

Outreach to Area Schools

Our astronomy program provides numerous public programs, including star parties, planetarium shows, and visits by area schools. Astronomy faculty have participated in Pomona's summer minority science education program, and numerous High School Teacher workshops.

Astronomy News

Public astronomy News

General News

A selection of astronomy news items from a variety of news feeds (New Scientist, Nature, ESO, ESA and NASA) - and the latest news from Pomona College astronomy!

CARP

Claremont Carnegie Astrophysics Program

Pomona College offers an advanced astrophysics seminar and summer research program jointly with the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena. This program allows Claremont students to do advanced research with leading Carnegie astrophysics staff. Many also do research in Chile, since the Carnegie Observatories operate the Las Campanas Observatory in Northern Chile.