Kirkwood Refracting Telescope Observatory

The Kirkwood Refracting Telescope Observatory, which is located with the campus are of the Indiana University (IU) in Indianapolis is one of the many refracting telescope and astronomical telescope observatories found in the United States.

The most well known astronomical telescope of the Kirkwood Astronomical Observatory is the 12 inch (1 foot or .3 meter) refracting telescope.

Constructed in year 1900, the Kirkwood Refracting Telescope Observatory was named in honor of Daniel Kirkwood, a professor of mathematics at the Indiana University. Daniel Kirkwood is also an astronomer – he was the discoverer of the division or gaps found within the asteroid belt in our solar system called the Kirkwood Gaps.

Albeit the refracting telescope observatory is not open and available to the public the whole time of the year (it is open only on school months), when operational it is usually open to the public every Wednesday evening on a clear weather. The admission is free, and there is no need for prior reservations.

The refracting telescope of the observatory is used by the university’s college students for their astronomy and sciences course. In fact, the Kirkwood observatory is more known as a student observatory – primarily catering to students, especially that of the Indiana University. Other astronomical telescope of the observatory is the solar telescope, which is used by the astronomy students for studying the sun, its features, as well as the solar phenomena like the solar eclipse.