Joseph H. Rogers Observatory

Can you visit Joseph H. Rogers Observatory? Yes

Public viewing nights with Grand Traverse Astronomical Society; schedule at gtastro.org.

A public night at an observatory usually starts at dusk with a short talk, then a line at the eyepiece of the main telescope for the Moon, a planet or a bright cluster, with volunteers' smaller telescopes set up outside. Dress for the night air even in summer: domes are not heated, so the telescope stays at outside temperature. Many nights sell out or cancel for clouds, so check the observatory's site on the day.

Telescopes at Joseph H. Rogers Observatory

14-inch reflector.

How dark the sky is at Joseph H. Rogers Observatory

Joseph H. Rogers Observatory has no Bortle rating in the list yet. The scale below shows what each class looks like.

Sky brightness and class come from the World Atlas of Artificial Night Sky Brightness (Falchi et al. 2016, CC BY-NC 4.0), with natural skyglow added, at the coordinates below. Research telescopes are often sited on mountains above the haze, so the real sky can be darker than the map suggests.

Joseph H. Rogers Observatory among the observatories of Michigan

Green dots are observatories open to the public, blue dots research or private sites, squares dark sky places; select one for its page. See Michigan observatories for the full list.

The coordinates on this page point to zip 49684 (approximate): 44.694°N, 85.676°W.

Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Open the larger map · Directions. Mountain observatory roads are often gated after dark; go only on a scheduled public night.

Dark sky places, observatories and clubs near Joseph H. Rogers Observatory

Nearest dark sky places

Other observatories open to the public within 150 km

• Brooks Astronomical ObservatoryMt. Pleasant, Michigan, 142 km (88 mi). Monthly public open nights during the academic year (since 1976)

Astronomy clubs within 150 km

• Grand Traverse Astronomical SocietyTraverse City, Michigan, 0 km (0 mi). Meets Monthly, usually 1st Friday
• Door Peninsula Astronomical SocietySturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, 135 km (84 mi). Meets Astronomy Campus, Crossroads at Big Creek

Star parties near Joseph H. Rogers Observatory

Planning a trip? Astrotourism in Michigan puts the dark sky places, observatories, clubs, star parties, planetariums and science centers of the state on one map, with the best night out worked out.

Joseph H. Rogers Observatory record

From the site's observatories dataset (observatories_q426). Distances are computed from the coordinates.