Dominey Observatory - Public Viewing Nights
To reserve your spot, please email observatory@shsu.edu or call (936) 294-1601. Please include the full names of all attendees when making your reservation.
| Date | Time | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday, March 8th | 8:00pm | Reservations are currently at capacity. | |
| Saturday, March 22nd | 8:00pm | Reservations are currently at capacity. | |
| Saturday, April 12th | 8:00pm | Reservations are currently at capacity. | |
| Saturday, April 26th | 8:00pm | Reservations are currently at capacity. | |
FAQ
Can I come to the observatory without a reservation?
No, a reservation is required to visit the Dominey Observatory.
Is food or drink allowed?
No, we ask that all food and drinks be left in your car.
Can I bring my own telescope?
Yes, but prior approval is required when making your reservation. We encourage visitors to bring their own telescopes, but depending on the night, space may be limited.
What are your office hours?
Our office is open Monday through Friday, 8 AM – 5 PM, excluding weekends and holidays.
Can I bring a large group, or do you allow field trips?
For large groups or organizations, please contact us directly to arrange a dedicated viewing session outside of our public events.
I saw that some nights are dedicated to students. Can I visit on those nights?
No, those nights are reserved exclusively for students enrolled in our astronomy courses.
How much does it cost?
Public viewings are FREE! However, we do accept donations.
How to Donate:
- Click Give Now
- Enter your Gift Amount
- Under Gift Designation, select College of Science & Engineering Technology
- Under Area of Support, choose Friends of Physics
Location & Directions
Dominey Observatory
📍 39 Knox Cir, Huntsville, TX 77320
Our location may not appear correctly in Apple Maps. We recommend using Google Maps for accurate directions: 39 Knox Circle
Join our mailing list for public viewing dates and upcoming events!
Research - Barry Friedman
My research interests are in computational and theoretical condensed matter and chemical physics. Recently, I have been interested in quantum Hall systems, in particular in the computational aspects. A quantum Hall system consists of electrons moving in 2 dimensions in a high magnetic field at low temperatures. A physical realization is GaAs heterostuctures. One fascinating aspect of these systems is the possibility of having quasi particles with non abelian statistics. Materials with non abelian quasi particles provide a possible robust implementation of quantum computation. Hence, the behavior of condensed matter systems at low temperatures and large distances can be just as exotic as the behavior of particles studied at high energy by elementary particle physicists.
Several Sam Houston State University undergraduate physics majors and myself have investigated quantum Hall systems with a number of numerical tools. To compute the wave functions, direct diagonalization and the density matrix renormalization group have been used. The numerical problem is that the quantum mechanical state space, practically speaking the matrices one must deal with, grow as an exponential of the number of particles being simulated. Even if a many body electron wave function can be accurately calculated it is still not easy to understand the physics. Therefore, special quantities are needed to characterize the wave functions. In particular, quantities from quantum information theory have proved to be valuable; these quantities include the entanglement entropy and the topological entanglement entropy. An outstanding question in this area, that our studies have addressed, are the nature of the states in the second Landau level and whether these states have non abelian quasiparticles.