The Strategic Air & Space Museum will unveil its new mobile observatory and outreach laboratory this week.

The new facility will be unveiled on Thursday at the museum in Ashland.

The mobile facility is trailer that features everything needed to transport and deliver an astronomy experience throughout the state and region. It includes living quarters, as well as a full complement of handheld ham radios for communication and telemetry, an APRS tracking system, and a complete weather station. It also has red interior lights for night vision and an extensive remote hook-up system for computer control of outdoor telescopes.

The Strategic Air & Space Museum also is launching a contest to name the mobile observatory. The winner will receive a scholarship to the museum’s Astronaut Academy Summer Camp.