 Wilder Observatory in 2003 | |||
| Organization | Amherst College | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Location | Amherst,Massachusetts, United States | ||
| Coordinates | 42°21′56.7″N72°31′27″W / 42.365750°N 72.52417°W /42.365750; -72.52417 | ||
| Established | 1903 | ||
| Telescopes | |||
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  Location of Wilder Observatory | |||
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 Related media on Commons | |||
Wilder Observatory is anastronomicalobservatory owned byAmherst College. It is located on Snell Street inAmherst,Massachusetts, United States, and was designed by thearchitectural firm ofMcKim, Mead & White.[1] It was renovated in 2001, along with the telescope.[2] TheAmherst Area Amateur Astronomers Association offers observing nights at the Observatory.
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When the Wilder Observatory was built in 1903, the telescope was one of the largesttelescopes in the world at 18 inches (0.46 m), and it remains one of the largestrefractors.[3] Built byAlvan Clark & Sons, the instrument was shipped toChile in the summer of 1907 to observe the planetMars. This was due to Mars being atopposition, which occurs approximately every twenty-six months. Because the Mars opposition of 1907 placed the planet low over the southernhorizon from North America, it was deemed advantageous to ship a large instrument to a point below theequator, where Mars would appear directly overhead due to the more southerly latitude. Because of the extremely dry climate of theAtacama Desert, the telescope remained set up for the three-week period encompassing the opposition window in the open, without a shelter such as the dome under which it was normally housed. Following the opposition, which allowing for some then state-of-the-art pictures of the red planet to be taken, the telescope was then returned to its observatory.[citation needed]
The objective glass blank was made by Feil-Mantois and was figured over 18 months by Carl Lundin of Alvan Clark & Sons. The dome was built by W.N. Kratzer Structural Steel ofPittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The pier andGerman equatorial mount was constructed byWarner and Swasey ofCleveland, Ohio. The total cost of the telescope in 1903 was $12,000, and of that theobjective itself was $5,000.[citation needed]
The Amherst Area Amateur Astronomers Association offers observing nights at Wilder Observatory..
