NMSU Astronomy

COVID-19 and the Department of Astronomy: The faculty and staff of the Department of Astronomy are available to the community and look forward to a productive fall semester. While Department personnel will be working predominantly remotely so long as the current COVID situation persists, we are available during regular business hours to address any questions and to provide support. The easiest way to contact us is via phone or email, but we will also have several open Zoom rooms for anyone who wishes to “drop in”; note that you will be placed in a waiting room until we admit you. Via email, you can request a scheduled meeting online, or, if necessary and conducted safely, a face-to-face meeting. Our contact information:

• General Department inquiries : (575) 646-4438
• Department administrative assistant, Ofelia Acosta: (575) 646-1868, oruiz@nmsu.edu, Zoom: https://nmsu.zoom.us/j/4751045525
• Department financial issues, Lydia Medrano: (575) 646-4438, lymedran@nmsu.edu, Zoom: https://nmsu.zoom.us/j/5781243122
• Department Head, Jon Holtzman: (575) 646-8181, holtz@nmsu.edu, Zoom: https://nmsu.zoom.us/j/6368956022

Regarding fall classes, we will be offering a full complement of undergraduate and graduate classes. At the undergraduate level, we will offer:

• a large section of ASTR 110G that will provide an asynchronous online class that fulfills the lab General Education requirement,
• a smaller section of ASTR105G offered as a synchronous online class in a first year seminar formation (also satisfying lab General Education requirement),
• a hybrid section of ASTR301V, and
• an asynchronous online version of ASTR 305V.

At the graduate level, we will be offering courses in a synchronous online format.

Professors can be contacted by their email or phone numbers in the NMSU phonebook, or through Canvas if you are enrolled in an ASTR class.

For the Department policies on operation in the time of COVID, see here

All community events, such as Friday afternoon public talks, Observatory Open Houses, and various school visits and outreach activities, are temporarily suspended until further notice. We are exploring options for how to offer some of these activities virtually.

For all the most reliable and updated information on the COVID-19 pandemic, access to public health services in New Mexico and the continuity of classes online, please see the NMSU COVID-19 website.