Astronomy research at Fresno State is carried out by Professor Ringwald and his students.
It is mainly about cataclysmic variable binary stars and related objects. These include
novae, black holes and neutron stars, white dwarfs and hot subdwarfs, and the physics
of their accretion disks and outflows. Other research interests include common envelope
evolution, stellar magnetism, stellar winds, flare stars, and exoplanets. Fresno State
has two observatories. The Campus Observatory, on the grounds of the Downing Planetarium,
is where students get hands-on experience with astronomical instrumentation. Fresno
State's station at Sierra Remote Observatories, 47 miles from campus at a superb,
dark site in the Sierra Nevada mountains, is operated mainly by remote control from
campus over the Internet. Professor Ringwald welcomes ideas from students wanting
to do their own research projects, especially if they can be carried out with the
equipment we have now.
