Oberlin College Observatory and Planetarium

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Oberlin College Observatory and Planetarium

Oberlin College Observatory and Planetarium The Oberlin College Observatory is located atop Peters Hall at the center of Oberlin College campus.

Peters Hall was built in the 1880's and the dome was installed in 1929 along with a Gaertner 6 inch f:15 refractor telescope. We currently have a 14" Meade LX 200 in the dome, and are also capable of deploying a number of telescopes on piers on the observing deck on the south side of the dome. The observatory is actively used for introductory astronomy classes, for individual student projects, by the Oberlin Astronomy Club, and for public viewing sessions.

08/28/2026

The partial lunar eclipse, nearly total, reached its maximum around 12:20 AM this morning. Here it is from around that time.

08/27/2026

There will be a nearly total lunar eclipse tonight starting around 10:30 PM. Maximum eclipse is around 12:20 AM, and the Moon will look something like this photo from October of 2014. Take a selfie with the eclipsed Moon and share it here!

08/26/2026

Don't miss the almost-total lunar eclipse late Thursday night and early Friday morning. We will be open at 10PM.

08/25/2026

From today's Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD)The actual size of Earth's shadow, at the distance of the Moon's orbit, is much larger than the Moon appears in our sky. Don't miss the almost-total lunar eclipse this Thursday night/Friday morning. We will be open on Thursday from 10 to 11 PM, so stop by!

08/07/2026

"There are more than half a million galaxies in the central panel of this image from the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile." This is today's photo from Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD)

05/18/2026

No, this is not part of the recent release of information about UFO's (UAP's?), but I'm sure that some folks might think that it's a flying saucer. It is actually M104, the "Sombrero" galaxy which I imaged last night using the Seestar. It's about 28 million light years away and is a nearly edge-on spiral galaxy with a noticeable dust lane. Now, there may be intelligent life there, but I can't prove it.

05/16/2026

Nice observing session last night. Thanks to Max Lang for the image of the observatory deck. The other two are of the relatively nearby galaxies, M81 and M82, and also the cluster of galaxies in Leo which include M95, M96, and M105, along with other dimmer galaxies. We will be open next Saturday (5/23) from 9:30 to 11:30 PM and next Sunday (5/24) from 9:30 to 11:30 PM for Commencement Weekend. Everyone is welcome.

05/15/2026

We will be open for public observing tonight (5/15) from 9 to 11 PM.

04/17/2026

We will be open for public observing tonight, 4/17, from 9 to 11 PM.

04/09/2026

The Owl Nebula (M97), a planetary nebula, photographed using our Seestar from the observing deck on Wednesday night. Interestingly, we saw three actual owls fly over the deck a few minutes before this.

Address

50 N Professor Street
Oberlin, OH
44074

Telephone

+14407758636

Website

http://www.oberlin.edu/observatory/

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