Students who were interested in gazing through space, had their view temporarily blocked while the Observatory and observing deck began undergoing renovations early this semester.

The observatory is located on the roof the old Math and Computer Science Building and has been in need of improvements for some time now.

“It’s mainly to the observing deck,” Perry Hacking, astronomy professor, said. “We are actually going to create a classroom up there for the observing classes, for the lab classes.”

The building itself has come into question due to age and some areas have needed to be renovated.

“The whole building needs renovation, it’s gotten old,” Hacking said. “The roof is no exception which is where the lab is takes place.”

The renovation is going to be a big addition for the astronomy classes and labs moving forward. The observatory will temporarily take place of the Bookstore roof.

“What were going to do is take two existing rooms and we’re converting one into a classroom,” Hacking said. “It’s going to very helpful. It’s going to benefit the Astronomy 12 program a lot and then the other room which wasn’t really used very much, we’re going to renovate that so it can be a place where we store our telescopes.”

While the renovations are being done, the astronomy program has had to reduce the number of courses provided which mainly used the Observatory.

“We had to do this because students wouldn’t be able to use telescopes very much,” Hacking said. “But we do have some telescopes that we will be able to use off of a balcony. We have our part-time instructor Leon Palmer who has lots of labs that he can use that don’t involve telescopes.”

The hope is that the renovations will be done by this summer, and at the latest fall semester.

“The hope is that they will be able to have things done by Fall and if not, we will have one section again,” Hacking said. “Then once Spring comes we will be back to a full course load.”

One professor believes that along with the renovations some students will be able to enjoy what the new classroom will bring to the students.

“For one, students won’t be cold and they will definitely be more comfortable being a classroom while the labs go on,” Vincent Lloyd, astronomy professor, said.

Along with that, students are looking forward to taking the classes in the future and seeing what the renovations have to offer.

“I wasn’t able to add the class this semester due to the class being full, but knowing what they have in store has me excited to take the class in Fall,” Jason Smith, 22, undecided major, said.