Shattuck Observatory
Encyclopedia
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
in Hanover, New Hampshire
Hanover, New Hampshire
Hanover is a town along the Connecticut River in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 11,260 at the 2010 census. CNN and Money magazine rated Hanover the sixth best place to live in America in 2011, and the second best in 2007....
. It is a small building with three wings and a two-story dome (20 foot diameter). Its foundations are granite blocks; the building itself is brick. It is notable as the oldest scientific building on campus. These days the observatory is primarily used for instructional purposes, but is open for public observation of the stars on Friday evenings. For scientific work Dartmouth has shares in the MDM Observatory
MDM Observatory
The MDM Observatory is an optical astronomical observatory on Kitt Peak , adjacent to Kitt Peak National Observatory. It is owned and operated by the University of Michigan, Dartmouth College, Ohio State University, Columbia University, and Ohio University...
on Kitt Peak
Kitt Peak
Kitt Peak is a mountain in the U.S. state of Arizona. It is the location of the Kitt Peak National Observatory. The radio telescope at the Observatory is one of ten dishes comprising the Very Long Baseline Array ....
, Arizona, and the Southern African Large Telescope
Southern African Large Telescope
The Southern African Large Telescope is a 66m2 area optical telescope with a nominally 9.2 meter aperture but up to about 11.1m x ~9.8 m diameter aperture, and designed mainly for spectroscopy. It is located close to the town of Sutherland in the semi-desert region of the Karoo, South Africa...
in South Africa.
The observatory was built in 1854 for Ira Young, Professor of Natural Philosophy, to designs drawn up by his brother Ammi B. Young
Ammi B. Young
Ammi Burnham Young was an important 19th century American architect whose commissions transitioned from the Greek Revival to the Neo-Renaissance styles. His Second Vermont State House brought him fame and success, which eventually led him to become the first Supervising Architect of the U.S....
, then supervising architect of the United States Treasury Department. Its construction and equipment costs were covered by a gift of $7,000 by Dr. George C. Shattuck, Dartmouth class of 1803, who stipulated that the Trustees match the gift with an additional $4,000. In 1955 the building was renovated and its original dome replaced, but otherwise the building remains substantially unaltered since its first construction.
Telescopes
- 9.4-inch equatorial telescope
- 4-inch Troughton & Sims meridian circle
- 12-inch Meade LX200Meade LX200The Meade LX200 is a family of commercial telescopes produced by Meade Instruments launched in 1992 with 8″ and 10″ schmidt-cassegrain models on computerized mounts.Rod Mollise - The Past, Present and Future of the Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope , . 12" and 16" models quickly followed...
External links
- Public Observing at Shattuck Observatory.