Three College Observatory.

University observatory · Graham, North Carolina

Three College Observatory

Three College Observatory is an university observatory in Graham, North Carolina. It is open to the public.

Three College Observatory in brief

Open to the public
Yes
Bortle class
Not yet rated

Official site

Can you visit Three College Observatory? Yes

Free public nights about monthly late Sep-Jun, reservation required (fill quickly); 60-90 minutes after sunset.

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.

Three College Observatory
Three College Observatory

Telescopes at Three College Observatory

0.81m reflector.

How dark the sky is at Three College Observatory

Three College Observatory has no Bortle rating in the list yet. The scale below shows what each class looks like.

1 mag 8.0 21.99+ 2 mag 7.5 21.89+ 3 mag 7.0 21.69+ 4 mag 6.5 20.49+ 5 mag 6.0 19.50+ 6 mag 5.5 18.94+ 7 mag 5.0 18.38+ 8 mag 4.5 18.00+ 9 mag 4.0
The Bortle scale. Each panel shows the class number, the faintest star the naked eye reaches at the zenith, and the darkest-edge sky brightness reading of that class in mag/arcsec².

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.

Three College Observatory among the observatories of North Carolina

Graveyard Fields Hominy Valley County Park Linville Gorge Wilderness Mayland Earth to Sky Dark Sky Park Nantahala National Forest New River State Park Oak Island Beach Town Ocracoke Campground Pettigrew State Park Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute Observatory Croatan National Forest Uwharrie National Forest Cape Hatteras National Seashore Cape Lookout National Seashore Dark Sky Park Squirrel Valley Observatory Williams Observatory Lucile Miller Observatory Dark Sky Observatory Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute Willis Observatory Three College Observatory Graham, North Carolina Three College Observatory Graham, North Carolina
Dark sky place Research or private observatory Observatory open to the public

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

The coordinates on this page point to zip 27253 (approximate): 36.031°N, 79.381°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 Three College Observatory

Nearest dark sky places

PlaceWhereBortleDistance
Uwharrie National ForestNorth Carolina488 km (55 mi)
Staunton River State ParkVirginia497 km (60 mi)
Holliday Lake State ParkVirginia3166 km (103 mi)
Natural Bridge State ParkVirginia4178 km (111 mi)
New River State ParkNorth Carolina3182 km (113 mi)
James River State ParkVirginia3184 km (114 mi)

Astronomy clubs within 150 km

Star parties near Three College Observatory

Star partyNearDistanceUsual timing
Green Bank Star QuestGreen Bank, West Virginia270 km (168 mi)Summer
Shenandoah Night Sky FestivalLuray, Virginia289 km (180 mi)Late summer
Almost Heaven Star PartyRiverton, West Virginia297 km (185 mi)New-moon weekend in August
Cherry Springs Star PartyCoudersport, Pennsylvania641 km (398 mi)June, near new moon

Planning a trip? Astrotourism in North Carolina 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.

Three College Observatory record

Every value in the observatories dataset for Three College Observatory
ID203
NameThree College Observatory
Address5106 Thompson Mill Road
CityGraham
StateNC
Zip27253
CountryUSA
Webhttps://physics.uncg.edu/tco/
Publicy
Telescope0.81m reflector
Lat36.03100
Lon-79.38140
LatLonSpotzip 27253 (approximate)
StatusActive
PublicNoteFree public nights about monthly late Sep-Jun, reservation required (fill quickly); 60-90 minutes after sunset
Sourceshttps://physics.uncg.edu/tco/?p=13

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