Winfree Observatory

Can you visit Winfree Observatory? Yes

Randolph College star parties and public nights with Blue Ridge Astronomy Club (e.g. glow stick star party).

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.

What Winfree Observatory observes

The list does not describe the instruments at Winfree Observatory yet; the official site has them.

How dark the sky is at Winfree Observatory

Winfree 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.

Winfree Observatory among the observatories of Virginia

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

The coordinates on this page point to Winfree Observatory, Randolph College: 37.440°N, 79.173°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 Winfree Observatory

Nearest dark sky places

Other observatories open to the public within 150 km

• Leander McCormick ObservatoryCharlottesville, Virginia, 89 km (55 mi). Free Public Nights 1st and 3rd Friday monthly year-round (9-11 pm DST, 7-9 pm winter); free Eventbrite registration required
• Green Bank Telescope (GBT)Green Bank, West Virginia, 121 km (75 mi). Science Center open 9:30 am-5:30 pm (daily in summer, Thu-Mon in school year); guided bus tours of the GBT site $10

Astronomy clubs within 150 km

• Blue Ridge Astronomy ClubForest, Virginia, 15 km (9 mi). Meets Usually 4th Tuesday monthly, local public library community room in Bedford/Forest/Lynchburg area (varies)
• Roanoke Valley Astronomical SocietyRoanoke, Virginia, 74 km (46 mi)
• Star City Astronomy NetworkRoanoke, Virginia, 80 km (50 mi). Meets No regular meetings; members meet at observing sessions
• Charlottesville Astronomical SocietyCharlottesville, Virginia, 87 km (54 mi). Meets 1st Wednesday monthly, 7-9 pm

Star parties near Winfree Observatory

Planning a trip? Astrotourism in Virginia 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.

Winfree Observatory record

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