Bradstreet Observatory

Bradstreet Observatory sits on the Eastern University campus in St. Davids, Pennsylvania, purpose-built to bring telescope time to students and the wider public rather than research specialists alone.

About Bradstreet Observatory

Built in 1996 after an eight-year, $450,000 fundraising campaign, the observatory is named for David H. Bradstreet, the university's longtime astronomy professor and a binary-star researcher who has taught there since 1976. Its main instruments are twin 16-inch Meade LX200 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes, run with software that can locate millions of catalogued objects, and the facility was designed from the outset to be approachable for non-specialists and first-time stargazers.

Location & getting there

The observatory is located on Eastern University's campus in St. Davids, Pennsylvania, a suburb on Philadelphia's Main Line.

Visiting Bradstreet Observatory

Bradstreet Observatory holds free public observing nights every Tuesday during the academic semesters, weather permitting, drawing families to look through its twin 16-inch telescopes. It has also opened for major celestial events such as solar eclipses. Check Eastern University's astronomy department page for the current semester's schedule before visiting.

See your named star from here

Bradstreet's public-friendly telescopes and object-locating software make it a good match for tracking down a named star. Bring your certificate's coordinates, or find them in the star catalogue, and ask a volunteer at a Tuesday night session to help you find it.