Starry-eyed

If you’ve ever hiked, biked, or disc golfed your way through the forest near the Orchard Hill Residential Area, you may have stumbled upon an R2-D2-shaped building. During the day, this observatory isn’t much to look at, but on a clear night, it comes alive—filled with curious stargazers from the Five Colleges Astronomy Club (and their guests) hoping to glimpse far-off celestial bodies. 

Originally built in 1965 with a 20-inch telescope, the observatory sits atop the highest point on campus. Today, it is shared among the Five College Consortium and now houses a 16-inch Cassegrain reflector optical telescope purchased in 1976. On evenings when the club hosts their meetings at the observatory, club directors explain the telescope's mechanics up close and pass along the knowledge of how it works—allowing sight and insight into the moving pieces of our solar system—and beyond.    

On the night we visited, the club hosted quite a crowd. To the tune of David Bowie’s “Starman,” eager astronomy buffs took turns looking through the telescope lens while others set up their own smaller telescopes outside. A lovely undercurrent of comradery emerged as they pondered all the things they could see—and the things they could not.

Raw Materials

Here’s us trying to catch a vibe. How did we do?