Sproul Observatory
| Organization | Swarthmore College | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Location | Swarthmore, PA | ||
| Coordinates | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | ||
| Altitude | 60 meters (200 feet) | ||
| Website | www |
||
| Telescopes | |||
|
|||
Sproul Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by Swarthmore College. It is located in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, United States,[1] and is named after William Cameron Sproul, the 27th Governor of Pennsylvania, who graduated from Swarthmore in 1891.
Contents
Tours
An open house is offered on the second Tuesday of the month by the Physics and Astronomy department [1]
Directors
- John A. Miller (1923–1938)
- Peter van de Kamp (1937–1972)
- Wulff-Dieter Heintz (1973–1982)
- Sarah L. Lippincott (1982–)
Planetary discovery controversies
Under the direction of Peter van de Kamp this observatory made numerous claims of planetary systems and discoveries based on astrometry using the photographic plates made with the 24 in (61 cm) refractor telescope. These plates were found to have a systematic error that was misinterpreted as the effect of a planetary system on the parent star. This error was identified as early as 1973[2] and confirmed by the observatory in the 1980s.[3]
See also
References
External links
- Sproul Observatory
- Swarthmore College Bulletin, March 2001, pp 30-33, Barnard's Wobble
- The Cunningham Building: Swarthmore's Other Observatory
Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
