Daniel S. Schanck Observatory

The Daniel S. Schanck Observatory is a small, domed 19th-century building on Rutgers University's Queens Campus in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Completed in 1866, it's one of the oldest surviving observatories in the United States, and today it welcomes visitors on select open days rather than nightly stargazers. Its restored 6-inch refractor still works, more than 150 years after the building went up.

About Daniel S. Schanck Observatory

The observatory stands on George Street on Rutgers' historic Queens Campus, near Kirkpatrick Chapel and Old Queens. It was designed by architect Willard Smith in the Roman Revival style, modeled on the ancient Tower of the Winds in Athens, and named after Daniel S. Schanck, a New York City businessman who funded much of its construction. For over a century it served as Rutgers' first dedicated science building, used to teach generations of students the basics of observational astronomy.

History

The observatory's cornerstone was laid in 1865, and construction finished in 1866, making it tied with the Vassar College Observatory for the seventh-oldest surviving observatory in the United States. Its main telescope, a 6-inch (150mm) equatorial refractor built by Georges Prin of Paris, was donated to Rutgers College in 1929 by alumnus John Wyckoff Mettler. The building was added to both the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places in 1973, but active teaching use ended in 1979 and the building fell into disrepair. A major renovation, carried out jointly by Rutgers' Cap & Skull Society and the School of Arts and Sciences, restored the building in 2016, and the historic refractor itself was brought back into working order between 2016 and 2018 through the efforts of alumni, volunteers, and the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Telescopes & research

The observatory's centerpiece is its 6-inch Georges Prin equatorial refractor, a design typical of late 19th and early 20th-century teaching observatories. Now fully operational again after its restoration, it's used today mainly for public outreach and demonstrations rather than research, giving visitors a working link to how Rutgers students once learned astronomy firsthand.

Location & getting there

You'll find the observatory on Rutgers' Queens Campus in New Brunswick, New Jersey, opposite the parking area next to Kirkpatrick Chapel and just northeast of Old Queens and Geology Hall, in the heart of the university's historic core.

Visiting Daniel S. Schanck Observatory

Since its 2016 renovation, alumni and volunteers have hosted daytime guided tours of the observatory and its restored telescope on special occasions such as Rutgers Day. It isn't open on a regular daily schedule, so check current Rutgers University or Cap & Skull Society announcements for upcoming open days before you visit.

See your named star from here

The Schanck Observatory's restored 19th-century refractor was built to find exactly one point in the sky at a time, which is precisely what a set of star coordinates gives you. Name a star through star-register.eu and you'll receive its right ascension and declination, information any observatory, historic or modern, can use to locate it. See what's already been named in our star catalogue.