Stull Observatory at Alfred University

05/08/2026

Again the weather is not cooperating. Here is a photo of a linear air track, designed by our own Dr. John Stull, for whom the observatory is named. Check out our blog page for more history.

05/01/2026

Sorry everyone, the weather is not cooperating. No Public Stargazing tonight.

The image below shows the inside of our filter wheel during some servicing. This is how astronomers take color photos with a monochrome camera. This gives us the highest resolution.

04/24/2026

Public Stargazing for 4/24 is cancelled due to weather.

Yesterday the Laptop Ensemble performed music using the domes as giant speakers.

04/11/2026

Some solar observing with current astronomy club members today. The Sun in red light from hydrogen. There are several solar prominences visible.

04/03/2026

No public stargazing tonight due to the weather.

02/27/2026

Tonight is looking clear, we will have public stargazing from 7pm to 9pm.

02/20/2026

The weather is keeping us from opening again tonight. Here is our schedule for the next few weeks. Hopefully next week will be clear. Also we are starting to migrate to a new website: https://people.alfred.edu/~observatory/public_stargazing.html

The new page is still being tweaked but we should hopefully not run into constant Wordpress errors this way! Also the AllSky camera is working on the new site.

We welcome people to join us for stargazing, and a chance to look through our telescopes. Please check our schedule below for dates and times. Please note that we are only open on nights that are clear (no clouds). We try to keep this page updated within a few hours of program start time and will tr...

02/06/2026

No public observing tonight. Stay in and stay safe with the weather this weekend.

02/03/2026

We've been busy upgrading our equipment. Last summer we brought out newest telescope online, now named in honor of the previous director Dave Toot. It is a 20-inch Planewave telescope which will be our dedicated research imager.

Dr. Robinson organized students in December for a 2 week observing campaign. The target of the study was a star just to the left of the Orion Nebula, which means we got a really nice photo of the Orion Nebula as a result! The image you see of the Orion Nebula combines about 200 individual frames in Red, Green and Blue.

Our spring semester observing is back! Check out our blog for details. Remember we are only open for public observing on clear Fridays, and right now 2/6 isn't looking too great. Keep an eye on the skies! https://blog.alfred.edu/observatory/public-stargazing/

12/05/2025

No public stargazing tonight.

We are now closed for our winter break, check back for times starting in February.

Pictured is comet Lemmon, the images were taken in October by Dr. Thomas, and the color image was produced by Dr. Robinson. You'll notice the stars are all one color because each color (red, green, blue) are taken with a monochrome camera. The comet moves through the sky faster than the Earth's rotation rate. So the time between each image taken with through a filter means the comet has moved relative to far away stars.