Title:Cosmic Connection

Heyden Observatory

When the university’s observatory opened in 1843, it looked out at farmland and brilliant night skies. Within it, astronomy department faculty gained international fame by tracking stars, measuring local longitude and latitude, and researching solar eclipses. The department closed in 1971, but the observatory, named for director Francis J. Heyden, S.J., remains an open window to the night sky. The student Astronomical Society hosts weekly stargazing, using the dome’s 1888 telescope, along with smaller, contemporary devices. Given urban light pollution, “you can still see a surprising number of astronomical objects,” says society president Laura Caron (F’20), including Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Venus and Neptune.