Observing Wisconsin

Last week I was reading The Moon Pool by Abraham Merritt, a sci-fi/fantasy from the early 1900's, when a character referred to research being done at the Yerkes Observatory. There was a footnote, so I turned to the back of the book and read the following:

The University of Chicago's Yerkes Observatory, located in southeastern Wisconsin, was in Merritt's day arguably the most important observatory in the world. Its forty-inch refractor, constructed in 1897, was the world's largest telescope for a number of years and is to this day the largest refracting telescope in the world.

I had never heard of it before, but with that kind of lead-up it had to be checked out. A quick Google search revealed that it's still in operation, it's a mere 45 minutes away, and there are tours on Saturday mornings. Who knew that a 100+ year old, world-class observatory was so close and so accessible?

So, yesterday morning, we set out. The 45 minute trip wound up taking 1 hour and 15 minutes, since we had to drive through downtown Lake Geneva, a small but very popular resort town. We still made it on time, though, and once there we were greeted by a very friendly and very chatty astronomer, who led the tour.

The observatory is shaped like a "T", with 3 domes, one at each endpoint. The tour lasted about 45 minutes, and focused exclusively on the largest dome (90 feet), where the refractor is held. Suffice to say, it is big. And quite impressive.

At this stage of its life, the observatory is primarily used for educational outreach, but there is still a fair of amount of research being done there. The astronomers are upset at the University, though, for recently selling some of the surrounding land to a developer who plans to build about 75 homes. The observatory will stay as it is, but the added light pollution won't make their job any easier.

I forgot to bring our digital camera, so we had to make do with the camera in my new cell phone.













Before leaving, we stopped at the gift shop and I bought a piece of a meteorite that landed in Northwest Africa. The friendly man behind the counter explained the metals it contained, their properties, where the meteorite came from, and then remarked, "Everybody needs a rock from space." I couldn't agree more, friendly man. I couldn't agree more.



Not content with such a short foray into Wisconsin, we had agreed beforehand that after checking out the observatory, we would head over to Milwaukee and visit the Public Museum, where they have a new exhibit on display called "Dragon Skies: Astronomy of Imperial China."

So we drove northeast for about thirty miles, navigated construction in downtown Milwaukee, and finally arrived at the Museum. We spent a couple of hours looking at the exhibits. "Dragon Skies" had several ancient Chinese star charts, astronomical instruments, and water clocks, all with elegant dragon carvings adorning them.

Overall the museum was interesting, but it was hard to top the Yerkes Observatory. The most valuable thing we learned from the second half of our trip is that if you're going to Milwaukee, beware the construction! It renders maps nearly useless.