Apollo Observatory

Can you visit Apollo Observatory? Yes

Operated by Miami Valley Astronomical Society atop Boonshoft Museum; club meetings and occasional public observing.

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 Apollo Observatory

12-inch, 10-inch, (2) 8-inch reflectors; 5.5-inch refractors.

Miami Valley Astronomical Society

How dark the sky is at Apollo Observatory

Apollo 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.

Apollo Observatory among the observatories of Ohio

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

The coordinates on this page point to Apollo Observatory, Boonshoft Museum of Discovery: 39.789°N, 84.202°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 Apollo Observatory

Nearest dark sky places

Other observatories open to the public within 150 km

• Cincinnati ObservatoryCincinnati, Ohio, 75 km (47 mi). Weekly Astronomy Evenings (talk plus viewing through the 1845 Mitchel telescope), $15 adults, reservations required; other themed nights
• Ball State University ObservatoryMuncie, Indiana, 109 km (68 mi). Free public planetarium shows on select Fri-Sat evenings with live sky tour; observatory public viewing not confirmed
• Perkins ObservatoryDelaware, Ohio, 111 km (69 mi). Friday Evening Programs 8-10 pm, $10 by phone (740-363-1257), talk plus telescope viewing
• Swasey ObservatoryGranville, Ohio, 147 km (91 mi). Physics and Astronomy department open houses during the academic year (historic 9-inch refractor plus modern scopes)

Astronomy clubs within 150 km

• Miami Valley Astronomical SocietyDayton, Ohio, 4 km (3 mi). Meets Monthly general meeting Friday, 7 pm
• Stillwater StargazersTroy, Ohio, 28 km (17 mi). Meets 3rd Tuesday monthly, 7 pm
• Cincinnati Astronomical SocietyCleves, Ohio, 80 km (50 mi)
• Columbus Astronomical SocietyColumbus, Ohio, 110 km (69 mi). Meets 2nd Saturday monthly, 8 pm
• Lima Astronomical SocietyLima, Ohio, 111 km (69 mi). Meets Monthly Friday, 8 pm

Star parties near Apollo Observatory

Planning a trip? Astrotourism in Ohio 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.

Apollo Observatory record

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