On Oct. 28 Carroll ISD opened the doors of the new Dragon Observatory at Jack D. Johnson Elementary School.

The observatory, housed in a separate building at the back of the property, houses two 17-inch Celestron telescopes.

While the observatory is housed at Johnson Elementary, students from the entire district will utilize the telescopes.

According to Sam Graff, the district astronomy teacher, the main astronomy course is offered to juniors and seniors. The course covers how astronomy was used by previous civilizations, objects in the solar system and other celestial bodies such as stars and nebula in the Milky Way and beyond.

In addition the district will open the telescope for the campus astronomy club and community stargazing events.

"We have already used the telescope a few times," Graff said before the ribbon--cutting ceremony. "I was able to wake a bunch of high school kids at 5:30 a.m. to watch a lunar eclipse last week."

During a short presentation Dr. Taft Armandroff, the director of The University of Texas' McDonald Observatory at Fort Davis, Texas, welcomed Carroll ISD into the family.

"First I just wanted to say congratulations to Carroll ISD and the Hudson Foundation (the group who donated a majority of the funds for the project earlier this year) for the bold initiative of having a telescope and putting it directly in the hands of students," Armandroff said. "Fostering the students and encouraging them to learn about astronomy and get involved with the other sciences such as mathematics and engineering is just visionary of the district."

Southlake City Council approved the construction of the observatory in June. The telescopes are fitted with computerized motors, controlled by an iPad, which can track stars through the sky throughout the night so students do not have to continually reposition the telescopes.