Sproul Observatory

Sproul Observatory was a historic astronomical observatory at Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, active from 1913 until 2017.

About Sproul Observatory

Owned and operated by Swarthmore College, the observatory was named after William Cameron Sproul, the 27th Governor of Pennsylvania and a Swarthmore graduate of the class of 1891.

History

Its centrepiece was a 24-inch refracting telescope built by the John A. Brashear Company in 1911. For over a century, astronomers at Sproul used the telescope and photographic plates for astrometric work, including studies of visual double and multiple star systems. In July 2017, the 24-inch telescope was relocated to Bentonville, Arkansas, and the original observatory building was subsequently repurposed as Swarthmore's Intercultural Center.

Location & getting there

The former observatory building stands on the Swarthmore College campus in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, a leafy suburb southwest of Philadelphia.

Visiting Sproul Observatory

As the telescope has moved on and the building now serves a different purpose on campus, there is no working observatory here to tour today; visitors interested in the site's history can still see the building itself as part of the Swarthmore College campus.

See your named star from here

Sproul's astronomers spent decades tracking double and multiple star systems using precise positional data, the same kind of coordinates that identify a star named through Star Register. Explore our star packages or browse the catalogue of stars already named.