Dan Zowada Memorial Observatory

Dan Zowada Memorial Observatory is a research telescope facility affiliated with Wayne State University, now sited on Palomar Mountain in California after relocating there in 2024. It focuses on time domain astronomy, watching how objects in the universe change from night to night. Its dark, high-elevation home puts it among some of the best research skies in North America.

About Dan Zowada Memorial Observatory

The observatory is affiliated with Wayne State University in Michigan and built around a 20-inch PlaneWave telescope mounted on a PlaneWave L-500 direct-drive system, a setup designed for fast, precise pointing. Its work centers on time domain astronomy: repeatedly imaging the same patches of sky to catch objects that flare, fade, or otherwise change over time.

History

The observatory operated for years from Rodeo, New Mexico before relocating to Palomar Mountain, California in 2024, moving the 20-inch PlaneWave telescope to a new site at roughly 5,000 feet elevation.

Telescopes & research

Astronomers using the observatory study some of the most dynamic phenomena in the universe, including gas falling into supermassive black holes, tidal disruption events where stars are torn apart by black holes, supernovae, and active galactic nuclei. This kind of research depends on catching brief, unpredictable changes in brightness, which is exactly what the 20-inch PlaneWave telescope and its direct-drive mount are built for.

Location & getting there

Dan Zowada Memorial Observatory sits on Palomar Mountain in California, at around 5,000 feet elevation, an area long favored by astronomers for its dark, steady skies and also home to the famous Palomar Observatory. It lies within the North America region, in the United States.

Visiting Dan Zowada Memorial Observatory

This is a working research telescope rather than a public visitor center, so there's no advertised regular tour schedule. Anyone interested in visiting should check with Wayne State University's Department of Physics and Astronomy before making plans.

See your named star from here

A telescope built for catching faint, fast-changing signals, like the 20-inch PlaneWave at Dan Zowada Memorial Observatory, is also well equipped to find a single fixed point of light. Name a star through star-register.eu and we'll give you its exact coordinates, ready to hand to any observatory or astronomer with a telescope of their own. Explore more of the sky in our star catalogue.