Strawbridge Observatory

Haverford College
370 Lancaster Ave.
Haverford, PA

Left: The Strawbridge Observatory and crescent moon at twilight.

The Strawbridge Observatory at Haverford College houses 12-inch and 16-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes which are actively used by students in Haverford astronomy classes. The telescopes are also periodically made available for public use with teaching assistants and/or professors present to provide assistance and background information about what is being viewed. Note that the telescopes are only used when it is clear, and the domes are not opened when it is cloudy.

The contact phone number for the college is (610) 896-1000. If the weather is in doubt, please call to confirm that the observatory is open and that someone is there.

Public Observing

The observatory will be open for public observing during the Spring 2008 semester on the following nights:

Wednesday, February 13, 7:30-9:00 p.m.
Wednesday, March 5, 7:30-9:00 p.m.
Wednesday, April 9, 8:00-9:30 p.m.

IF THE SKIES ARE CLEAR

A reminder will also be printed in the Founders Bell and will be posted on go.haverford.edu before each public observing session.

Directions to the Observatory

Going West on Lancaster Ave. (Rt. 30):

Turn left onto Haverford Station Road (just past Haverford College's main entrance).
Bear right at fork; the street becomes Railroad Ave.
You will drive by the parking area of The Haverford School on the right and Haverford College property on the left.
At next fork, bear left; the street becomes College Avenue.
Immediately look for a small Haverford College sign on the left at Walton Road.
Turn left onto campus at Walton Road. A short distance later, you will see observatory on your right (just before the athletic playing fields.)
Follow signs for visitors parking (at the end of Walton Road)

News and Articles About Haverford Astronomy

Brook Henkel '05 was awarded a Fulbright Teaching Assistantship for study in Hamburg, Germany for 2005-06. Details can be found in the article Haverford College Announces Two Fulbright Grant Recipients on the PR Newswire.
Bruce Partridge gave a talk on Wednesday, June 16, 2004 on modern cosmology and the origin of the Universe entitled "The Biggest Nothing." It was part of "The Big Nothing," a Philadelphia-wide project exploring ideas of nothing and nothingness, initiated by the Institute of Contemporary Art of the University of Pennsylvania. It was held at Franklin Hall of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia.
Haverford's role in the development of the Atacama Cosmology Telescope in Chile was outlined in the article Consortium, Including Haverford Professors, Receives Grant to Construct New Telescope in the May 2004 Haverford Newsletter. Steve Boughn and Bruce Partridge are part of the multi-university consortium of astromomy profesors involved in the project, and Sarah Burke '06 worked on the project in Summer 2004.
A distributed computer cluster under development at Haverford and some associated pulsar searches (being conducted by the Haverford Pulsar Search Group) were described in the article New Project Brings Stars to Haverford in the May 2004 Haverford Newsletter.
Steve Boughn's article in the journal Nature uses a a comparison of data from several astronomical catalogs to confirm the rate of acceleration of the expansion of the universe. Read about it in Haverford Astronomer Confirms Accelerated Expansion of the Universe, an article in the January 2004 Haverford Newsletter.
Reid Sherman '04 spent a month in Australia at the Parkes Observatory to conduct radio pulsar observations for research projects in collaboration with Froney Crawford. Read all about it in Reid Sherman '04 at Australian Observatory, an article in the December 2003 Haverford Newsletter.
We had an enormous response to the Strawbridge Observatory's viewing of Mars (at its closest to the Earth in 60,000 years) the last week of August 2003. The event was detailed in A Close Encounter, an article written for the September 2003 Haverford Newsletter.
Haverford Astronomy students (including Andrew Cantino '05 and Reid Sherman '04) participated in research projects on campus during the summer of 2003. Details can be found in Campus Far from Silent As Students Engage in Summer Research, an article in the July 2003 Haverford Newsletter.
Two Haverford astronomy majors (Megan Roscioli '05 and Christine Lamanna '04) were selected as 2003 Goldwater Scholars by the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation. This scholarship is one of the most prestigious undergraduate scholarships of its kind. Details appeared in the article Two Haverford Students Awarded Goldwater Scholarships in the Haverford News Archives

Images from Strawbridge Observatory

Red Mars! (color photo with 12-inch, 9/2003)
Observatory TAs (color photo, 9/2003)
Star Trails Above Dome (color photo, 9/2003)
Observatory with Crescent Moon (color photo, 9/2003)
Dome with Crescent Moon #1 (color photo, 9/2003)
Dome with Crescent Moon #2 (color photo, 9/2003)
Moon Closeup (B-band CCD image with 16-inch, 0.12 sec exposure, 10/2003)

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