ALT This image shows the first attempt to photograph the moon at Rankin Science Observatory by the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Appalachian State University (1967-current) on July 15, 1964. The photograph was taken by John Dinkens. The Rankin Science Observatory was originally known as the Dark Sky Observatory housed in Rankin Science Hall, built 1963, and managed by the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the College of Arts and Sciences. A separate Dark Sky Observatory was opened in 1981 twenty miles northeast of Boone, NC. The Department offers an undergraduate degrees in applied physics and graduate degrees in engineering physics, as well as courses in industrial, chemical, computational, environmental, medical, and radiation safety physics.

ALT This image shows a student working in a laboratory classroom in the newly completed Rankin Science Building at Appalachian State Teachers College (1929-1967) in the early 1960s. She can be seen pouring a liquid from a beaker into a tube. The Rankin Science Building included classrooms and laboratories for the Departments of Biology, Geology, Chemistry, and Physics. It was completed in 1963 and dedicated to Dean Emeritus James Daniel Rankin.

ALT Description: This image shows student Carolyn Hutchins preparing a slide in the laboratory during the Biology 420 Microtechnique Course on November 10, 1958, in Smith-Wright Hall, built 1940, at Appalachian State Teachers College (1929-1967). Taught by Dr. L. Carpenter, the microtech lab was open twenty-four hours a day, during which students would work to produce 80 transparent, sectioned, stained, and labeled slides of plant or animal tissue to complete the course. The class had no other exams or written work. Students had to be science majors with two completed years of biology, a year of chemistry, and a year of physics, and be able to work independently.