Hobbs Observatory

Can you visit Hobbs Observatory? Yes

Public observing Saturdays May-Oct when clear, from 30-45 min after sunset for about two hours (none during Northwoods Starfest); CVAS volunteers.

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 Hobbs Observatory

24-inch, 14-inch telescopes.

How dark the sky is at Hobbs Observatory

Hobbs 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.

Hobbs Observatory among the observatories of Wisconsin

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

The coordinates on this page point to zip 54742 (approximate): 44.768°N, 91.286°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 Hobbs Observatory

Hobbs Observatory is about 5 km (3 mi) from Beaver Creek Reserve, a Bortle Class 4 dark sky place. See Beaver Creek Reserve for camping, where to set up and the sky by season.

Nearest dark sky places

Other observatories open to the public within 150 km

• Macalester College ObservatorySt. Paul, Minnesota, 149 km (93 mi). Occasional free open observatory nights listed on the Macalester calendar

Astronomy clubs within 150 km

• Chippewa Valley Astronomical SocietyFall Creek, Wisconsin, 0 km (0 mi). Meets Monthly business meeting, 7:30 pm
• Rochester Astronomy ClubRochester, Minnesota, 128 km (79 mi). Meets Monthly Tuesday, 7-9 pm

Star parties near Hobbs Observatory

Planning a trip? Astrotourism in Wisconsin 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.

Hobbs Observatory record

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