Facilities

Our Facilities at Francis Marion University include the following:

Dooley Planetarium - opened in 1978 the Planetarium has hosted over 200,000 visitors from the Pee Dee Region of South Carolina. The Planetarium is used to simulate the day and night sky at any time of year for different locations on Earth. We can travel from cities south of the equator to the north pole.

FMU Observatory - opened in 1981 the Observatory houses a 14-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope in its dome and a variety of smaller telescopes we can set up on the observation deck or the nearby track. We open the Observatory to the public each semester for evening (or daytime) observing sessions. We are not open during the summer months due to the high humidity, late sunset times, and frequent rainstorms.

Radio JOVE Antenna - located beside the Observatory, the Radio JOVE system is a dipole antenna. This project was funded by an FMU Information Technology Grant. With the dipole antenna, receiver, amplifier, and computer software, we can listen to radio signals from Jupiter, the Sun, and the Galactic Center.