Welcome

The Leitner Family Observatory and Planetarium is a facility of the Astronomy Department at Yale University for education, student research, and public outreach. The observatory was dedicated in May 2005, and the digital planetarium theater opened in January of 2009. The facility was made possible by the generous support of James Leitner ('75).

The Leitner Family Observatory and Planetarium is open every Tuesday night for a planetarium show.  Weather permitting there will also be public viewing through the telescopes in the observatory.  Visitors may view planets, nebulae, star clusters -- whatever happens to be interesting in the sky. Planetarium shows are at 7pm and 8pm April - October and 6pm and 7pm November - March. The Planetarium holds 50 people. Seats are available on a first come first serve basis. Public nights are free and there is plenty of parking. LFOP is located at 355 Prospect St. in New Haven, inside the Farnam Gardens-- directions and a map are posted here.

The observatory has two Ash domes which contain a 0.4 meter RCOS telescope and an 8-inch Grubb refractor that was originally purchased by the Yale astronomy department to observe the 1882 transit of Venus. The 0.4m telescope can be controlled remotely from a control room inside the observatory or from anywhere over the internet. We have several digital detectors that can be used with the 0.4m telescope for astronomy labs and student research, including an SBIG STL1001E camera and a DSS-7 spectrograph. On the roof of the building we have a 3-meter radio telescope.

Between the two domes there is an observing deck with permanent piers for three 8-inch SCT telescopes and a 12-inch SCT. These smaller telescopes are frequently used for public observing events as well as for introductory astronomy labs. We also have a fleet of small telescopes on tripods which can be used on the observing deck or which can be taken to dark-sky sites.

The primary use of the observatory is undergraduate research and education. The facilities are used for astronomy classes at Yale College, such as Astronomy 155 (our observational astronomy course for non-majors) and Astronomy 255 (the observing course for majors).

LFOP is also frequently used by STARRY, the Yale undergraduate astronomy club, which meets at the observatory on the 2nd Tuesdays of the month during the academic year.

The planetarium is used by visiting school groups during the academic year.  For more information contact planetarium instructor, . 

For more information, please contact the observatory director, .