Among the facilities available for studentshere at West Chester University Department of Geology and Astronomy are an electron microscopy laboratory equipped with an FEI Quanta 400 Scanning Electron Microscope with the Oxford 400 EDS system, and an FEI Technai 12 Transmission Electron Microscope; outstanding collections of rocks, minerals, and fossils; two travel vans; a sedimentology/stratigraphy analysis laboratory; a geophysics lab with ground velocity station seismograph, portable signal enhancement seismograph, and flux-gate field magnetometer; Portable 14" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope equipped with digital camera and spectrograph, Spitz A4 Planetarium for students and public viewing, Astronomical observatory with a fixed 10" telescope and field telescopes, and collection of field telescopes; a geochemistry laboratory; a petrography laboratory with optical polarizing microscopes and X-ray diffractometer; X-ray fluorescence spectrometer; dark room; mapping laboratory with ArcMap 9, digitizer, reflection projector and drafting facilities; student computer laboratory and research center; and meteorological instruments. For meteorological student research projects and to enhance classroom laboratory activities, students have the opportunity to work with satellite images, Doppler radar graphics, upper level atmospheric readings and detailed surface maps which provide data concerning the conditions of the atmosphere world-wide. The department also operates a local GPS calibration station.
The department also maintains a Telonics Interactive Remote Imaging System (T-RIS) Laboratory in cooperation with the School of Education's Center for Earth Observation Systems. T-RIS is a computer-based earth station with very high resolution picture transmission capabilities that tracks and gathers data from the satellites. The department is one of five sites in the world for this system that is designed primarily for use in science education (grades 4-12).
