Stargazing

Please join us on Friday, September 12 for a telescope observing open house at the rooftop observatory on Davey Lab!

As always, the event will go from 8:30pm - 10:00pm.  Please join us for observing with several different telescopes.  To get to the observatory, take the elevator from the lobby of Davey Lab and choose "6R" to get to the 6th floor of the building. 

Monthly Stargazing is sponsored by the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics and the Astronomy Club during the fall and spring semesters. We are closed from May to August during the Penn State summer sessions. However, stargazing is offered in mid-July as part of our AstroFest program.

When the observatory is open, the public is welcome to join us on the roof of Davey Lab to observe planets, stars, and deep space objects like nebulae, galaxies, and star clusters that are currently visible in the sky using a variety of telescopes (weather permitting). There is no fee to attend, and no RSVP is necessary.  

During the fall and spring, we will also occasionally host “Stars and Scientists” nights on Fridays where a researcher will present a brief science talk about their work, followed by rooftop telescope observing if the weather is clear. The talks will be held on the fifth floor (room 538) and will begin at 8:30 pm.

For the Fall 2025 semester, we are going to keep an eye on the forecasts and try to open when we are more likely to have clear weather on a Friday night.  So we aren't going to post ahead of time any prospective dates, as we are going to schedule open houses with roughly a week's notice when it is looking likely to be clear.

We are going to host an event (AstroNight) on October 18 for Penn State Parents and Family Weekend.

We will update this website 12 - 24 hours beforehand with an update on the weather forecast and our decision on whether the observatory will be open on a particular Friday night.

Other local opportunities for telescope observing in Central PA:

In the State College community, the Central PA Observers also host stargazing nights in local parks. They will be holding a sky watch at the Arboretum at Penn State on October 4 at 8:30pm.

During the summers, Fort Roberdeau's Mountain Lion Observatory also hosts telescope observing nights at their location approximately 40 miles from the University Park campus.