The overall objective of the GOTO Astronomy Lab project was to design and construct a state-of-the-art astronomical laboratory for use with our two-semester introductory astronomy course sequence. The intention was to create a facility that provided the students with the opportunity to make visual, CCD imaging and spectroscopic observations either directly from the observing deck or from an adjacent laboratory room. In addition it was desired to create the capability to do scientific analysis on these observations in much the same way that research astronomers do.
The heart of the physical facilities is the roll-back roof system. Without it the rest of the facility would not have been possible in a form that met the design objectives. The Celestron CPC-1100 telescopes are far to heavy to be set up and taken each night. Our previous facility required the set up and take down of 12 Celestron-8 telescopes which was a time consuming and arduous task which took its tole on the optical alignment and mechanical structure of the telescopes not to mention on the lab instructors and assistants.