The Hartung Boothroyd Observatory

Photo courtesy Justin Zoll, justinzoll@gmail.com

The Hartung-Boothroyd Observatory is located off the Cornell campus, atop Mount Pleasant. It is used mainly as a teaching facility for upper-level astronomy classes. The observatory is named in honor of M. John Hartung '08 (chemical industrialist) and Samuel L. Boothroyd (professor and chairman of astronomy 1921-1942). The telescope construction began in the 1930s and the observatory was built in 1974. It contains a 25-inch telescope and is equipped with various instruments.

The telescope, control electronics and instruments are largely the result of work done by Cornell undergraduates since 1970. The telescope mount was designed as a senior project by George E. Gull. It was manufactured by the students at the Tompkins, Tioga and Seneca BOCES and by Therm, Inc., with mirror coatings by Evaporated Metal Films corporation, all in Ithaca. The observatory was founded by Jim Houck. The principal contact is Don Barry.

"Graduates" of the HBO project are now senior engineers and technical managers as well as graduate students, research associates and faculty at major universities.

About the Telescope

• The HBO Telescope
• The HBO Instruments
• HBO Operations Manual
• Gallery of HBO Observatory
• Gallery of HBO Imagery
• Astro4410 - Experimental Astronomy

Observing Planning

• Clear Sky Clock for Ithaca
• Astronomical Time at HBO: Current Local Sidereal Time =
• Satellite IR Weather Map
• Hourly Airmass Calculator
• Target of Opportunity Resources
• Finding Guide Stars for long integrations
• Precess Coordinates
• Landolt Standard Stars -- and with larger finding charts

Map to HBO

Location: 42°27′29.61″ N, 76°23′04.59″ W   Elevation: 1753 ft = 534 m    Observatory Code: H81

Administrative Links