Van Vleck Observatory

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Van Vleck Observatory

Van Vleck Observatory at Wesleyan University

10/01/2026

Happy October! It is officially Wesleyan’s Pride Month, and we are so excited to bring back our annual StarGAYzing event.

Come 🌈✨ star gay-ze with us on Friday, October 9th at the Van Vleck Observatory. Check out cool space stuff through a telescope, enjoy treats, mini talks on q***r topics in astronomy, a planetarium show, and more. 🔭 All ages, genders, identities, and majors welcome! Address: 96 Foss Hill Drive, Middletown, CT

Event information, including registration link, can be found here: https://events.wesleyan.edu/event/19340-stargayzing

09/28/2026

For the little space lovers in your life, sign-ups are now open for Kids' Nights, starting October 2 at 8pm. Aimed at elementary school ages, but open to all. Join us for hands-on space-related activities, and a look through the telescopes if the weather is clear, or a trip inside our inflatable planetarium if it's not. Kids' Nights are free, but please register for Kids' Nights through the Middletown Parks and Rec website: https://middletownct.myrec.com/info/activities/program_details.aspx?ProgramID=30186

09/16/2026

Public observing is back! Our first Space Night of the year is tomorrow -- Wednesday, September 16 -- from 8-9pm at the Van Vleck Observatory. Aimed at high school ages and adults, but open to all! Join us to learn about astronomy major Freda Dong's work studying how cell phones and WiFi impact observations of space at radio wavelengths, and take a look through the observatory's telescopes!

Tomorrow is also our first colloquium of the year. Prof. Chiara Mingarelli will be talking to us about how to detect gravitational waves by observing networks of pulsars. Aimed at astronomers, but open to all! Tea at 4:15, talk at 4:30pm in the observatory classroom.

For the little space lovers in your life, sign-ups are now open for Kids' Nights, starting October 2 at 8pm. Aimed at elementary school ages, but open to all. Join us for hands-on space-related activities, and a look through the telescopes if the weather is clear, or a trip inside our inflatable planetarium if it's not. Kids' Nights are free, but please register for Kids' Nights through the Middletown Parks and Rec website: https://middletownct.myrec.com/info/activities/program_details.aspx?ProgramID=30186

For our full schedule of events and information about joining our mailing list, check here:
https://www.wesleyan.edu/academics/departments/astronomy/observatory/observatory-events.html

All our events are free and open to the public. Join us if you need a little more space in your life!

09/15/2026

Tomorrow, Wednesday, September 16th we are excited to kick off our Fall 2026 Colloquium. Please join us for a lecture by Dr. Chiara Mingarelli.

Title: Searching for merging supermassive black holes

Abstract: Pulsar timing arrays have opened a new observational window onto nanohertz gravitational waves, providing evidence for a gravitational wave background and motivating the search for the individual supermassive black hole binaries that generate it. In this talk, I will present the first catalog of targeted searches using the NANOGrav 15 year data set, focusing on 114 active galactic nuclei with observed periodicity or other indications of binarity. By incorporating source specific information such as sky position, distance, redshift, and an estimated gravitational wave frequency, our limits on strain and chirp mass are improved on average 2.6x compared to all sky analyses. I will discuss how these searches connect to population models, electromagnetic follow-up, and current measurements of the gravitational wave background. The tests outlined here create a path toward the first detection of an individual supermassive black hole binary with pulsar timing arrays.

09/04/2026

Learn about what's up in the night sky at Space Nights, beginning with a half-hour interactive presentation by department students and/or faculty on space news or recent astronomy discoveries, followed by observing through telescopes when it's clear. Events are aimed at high school level and above, but all visitors are welcome. Registration is not required. Events take place during the academic year on Wednesdays at 8 p.m.

Fall 2026 Schedule: September 16th, 23rd, & 30th; October 7th, 14th, 21st, & 28th; November 11th & 18th; and December 2nd & 9th.

05/29/2026

Congratulations to Prof. Meredith Hughes on her promotion!

A. Meredith Hughes, Professor of Astronomy Professor Hughes is a radio astronomer whose research focuses on planet formation. Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), she investigates circumstellar disks around young stars—collections of dust and gas that form planetesimals and eventually planets. Her research has provided fundamental insights into the structure and evolution of planet-forming disks, as well as the surprising persistence of gas in debris disks and its role in planet formation. Professor Hughes, who received the Binswanger Prize for Teaching Excellence in 2023, teaches Introductory Astrophysics, Exploring the Cosmos, Radio Astronomy, Observational Astronomy, Astronomical Pedagogy, and Planetary Science.

05/24/2026

It's a little rainy, but they're still going to shine! Congratulations to our amazing Astronomy class of 2026! We are so proud of you and miss you already.

05/21/2026

Happy Reunion + Commencement Weekend! Friday, May 22nd, the Astronomy Department will be hosting public observing from 9:30-11pm at Van Vleck Observatory. We will also be hosting a reception after Commencement on Sunday, May 24th for our majors, alumni, family, friends, and faculty.

05/13/2026

SAVE THE DATE!

05/07/2026

Hello from your friendly neighborhood astronomers! Our public programs have ended for this academic year and we can't wait to see you all in September!

If you’d like to join the astronomy email list to get notified about events when we start back up in the fall, you can email [email protected] with the subject line “subscribe-astro-events” to join our newsletter.

There's more info about observatory events and how to find us on our web page: https://www.wesleyan.edu/academics/departments/astronomy/

Thank you to Jillian Epstein (Astronomy MA Student) for the amazing drawing!

Address

96 Foss Hill Drive
Middletown, CT
06459

Website

http://www.wesleyan.edu/astro/, https://ebar.blogs.wesleyan.edu/

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