Observatory
The Observatory will be open on June 5 from 8:30pm - 10:30pm. We will be closed on Friday, June 19 (Juneteenth) as the College is also closed for the holiday. If it is clear, we will take out telescopes and look at some beautiful astronomical objects. We also give a tour of the facility, which includes the one-tenth scale model of the Hale Telescope at Mt. Palomar and images that we have taken with the telescopes on campus.
The Observatory will be open the first and third Fridays of the month for the summer: June 5, July 3 and 17, and August 7 and 21. All dates are tentative! Please check back here to see if our open dates have changed before coming up to see us, or you can call the observatory phone number below to hear our monthly hours. No prior reservations are required, but if you have a group of greater than 10 people that you would like to bring to the observatory, call 607-962-9494 and leave a message with a phone number so we can return your call.
Parking for the Observatory is available in the Digital Dome parking lot or the large parking lot by the Gym. Parking at the Observatory is reserved for our visitors who require accessible parking. All of our events are free and open to the public!
If you are interested in attending a Digital Dome Show, please check out their link here.
EVENTS
None schedule for summer 2026
Kids' Night is tentatively scheduled for the first Friday in October! Check back for more info on that event as we get closer to the date.
TELESCOPES
We have many types and sizes of telescopes here at our Observatory. Our two largest telescopes are both reflectors — the 20" and the 16". Our 20" telescope is the one-tenth scale model of the Hale Telescope at Mount Palomar in California.
We have 14", 12", 10", 8", and 6" reflectors that were built by members of the Elmira-Corning Astronomical Society. We have 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain reflectors in addition to 4" refractors and a solar telescope.
Everything at the observatory is free and open to the public! Please note that most of our time is spent outside, if the weather is clear. So please dress for the weather!
Parking is available in the Digital Dome Theater parking lot. The only parking at the Observatory is reserved for our visitors requiring accessible parking.
Questions?
Deborah Dann, Director of the Observatory