Observatories Around the Brandywine Valley Offer Windows to the Universe

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Local observatories serve as focal points for amateur astronomy buffs and anyone else fascinated by what’s above.

To this day, we’ve never stopped looking upward wondering what it all means, whether on our own or in interested groups of stargazers. Robert Lancaster leads one such group. On a Tuesday evening this past August, a handful of the Brandywine Astronomical Society’s 140 or so members have assembled for a workshop at the Mount Cuba Astronomical Observatory near Greenville. On any given evening, they may be observing the sky through one of the observatory’s telescopes or one of their own. Other times, they could be working on their astrophotographic equipment or helping a teenager put together a first telescope. “The workshops provide an opportunity for members to discuss what they’re working on,” says Lancaster, who teaches physics and computer sciences at Wilmington’s Concord High School.

Like the Widener University Observatory in Chester, Mount Cuba allows astronomy buffs and interested newbies to gaze into the heavens and learn more about the universe. It also serves as a research and educational hub for professional astronomers and a focal point for groups like Lancaster’s. Not to be confused with the nearby Mt. Cuba Center and its public gardens, the small but striking facility sits on a tree-lined knoll just yards away from Hoopes Reservoir, gleaming in white like a miniature Taj Mahal topped by three observatory domes. Slightly downhill is an additional, smaller compound with observatory domes manned by the BAS.

A nonprofit organization, Mount Cuba was founded in 1958 by a group of local scientists who cited as their inspiration Dover native Annie Jump Cannon, a groundbreaking astronomer in the first half of the last century. Mainly working at Harvard University, she invented the current star classification system, personally classifying more than 350,000 of them. The observatory was completed in 1964 with a central dome housing its first research telescope, a 24-inch (0.6-meter) Tinsley reflector.

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On this evening, Lancaster begins a tour of the facility on the entry level at its circular center, a hallway that wraps around a large, central pedestal for the Tinsley on the floor above. Its walls are covered with dozens of photos of the blinking universe. “The pier supports the telescope,” Lancaster says. “But note that there’s a very small space between it and the floor. It’s not connected to the building, so it won’t get any vibrations from activity in the building.”

Off the circular corridor are various rooms, including one for students from the University of Delaware. Their professor, Judith Provencal, is resident astronomer at the observatory. Mount Cuba also hosts the Whole Earth Telescope research project, an international network of astronomers who collaborate on the study of variable stars. A small classroom with a domed ceiling serves as a planetarium where images from the sky can be projected, though none originate directly from the telescopes. There’s also a cluttered workshop where amateur telescopes can be constructed or repaired. Up a narrow stairway is a door to the outside and a flat roof connecting two of the three domes. “This is where they bring the public on clear nights to observe using smaller telescopes,” Lancaster says.

Mount Cuba was founded in 1958 by a group of local scientists who cited as their inspiration Dover native Annie Jump Cannon, a groundbreaking astronomer in the first half of the last century.

He opens the door to a second dome over the classroom planetarium, which contains the 4.5-inch DuPont refractor telescope built in 1887 and donated to Mount Cuba in the 1970s. “A refractor telescope has a lens, while a reflector telescope uses mirrors,” notes Lancaster.

Mount Cuba Astronomical Observatory near Greenville.

Separated from the main building is a new 52-inch (1.3-meter) reflector telescope that will greatly increase the facility’s research capacity. “The installation is about two years late because of the pandemic,” says Greg Weaver, Mount Cuba’s manager, adding that it will be open by the end of 2023.

Unlike the primary telescopes at Mount Cuba, the 16-inch computerized Meade Cassegrain reflecting telescope on Widener University’s main campus allows students and the public to look directly at the stars and planets it’s trained on. “We try to view a sampling of stellar, planetary and galactic activities depending on the time of year,” says Harry Augensen, who’s retired from active teaching at Widener but still coordinates observatory activities. “We can see deep into the sky—objects such as blue and gold double stars. Like a restaurant has a menu, we serve up a selection of stars.”

Unlike the primary telescopes at Mount Cuba, the 16-inch computerized Meade Cassegrain reflecting telescope on Widener University’s main campus allows students and the public to look directly at the stars and planets it’s trained on.

Widener’s public viewing nights generally draw 20–25 people. After a lecture, guests look through the eyepiece of the scope, which was installed in 2005. “If the group is small enough, we allow them to take photos with their cell phones,” Augensen says, pointing out that research is limited to work on variable stars due to the ambient light of Widener’s urban campus.

Lancaster’s Brandywine Astronomical Society also hosts special events in more rural settings. For Friday Night Lights, the group gets together with other astronomical societies to party and stargaze at ChesLen Preserve near Unionville. “It’s dark enough that you can see a lot of things in the sky,” he says, “even with the naked eye.”

Visit mountcuba.org, delastro.org and widener.edu.

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