Carrying On: Stars unaligned for GU Observatory

Every time I tell people I’m the President of Georgetown’s Astronomical Society, two things happen. First, they laugh. Then, they ask me if I can give them a tour of Georgetown’s Heyden Observatory.
The observatory, which overlooks Georgetown from its perch next to Yates, never fails to intrigue people, but this universal fascination makes the current state of the observatory all the more pitiful. Even though it houses one of the oldest functioning telescopes in the country, a historical treasure, the building is badly deteriorated. The observatory and the telescope desperately need to be renovated—but the University doesn’t seem to care. While I’m not suggesting that the University is fully complicit in the current state of the observatory, it has a responsibility to maintain it.
Although the observatory was finished in 1843, the 12-inch refracting telescope wasn’t erected until the 1890s. In the years after World War II, doctoral students could research their dissertations there, and Jesuit astronomers ran and used the facility up until 1972. That year, however, the astronomy department was closed down and the observatory was turned over to the Department of Biology. Its upkeep was placed in the hands of passionate graduate students who formed the Astronomical Society.
Curious as to why this all occurred, I found the reason for the astronomy department’s abrupt end in a 1971 Voice interview with then Director of the Observatory Francis Heyden, S.J., who said, “[The Board of Directors] felt a subject like astronomy at Georgetown was a luxury and should be phased out.”
I guess it’s understandable that the University did not want to continue to fund the astronomy department, even though it was once the largest department of graduate astronomy in the world. But it doesn’t take a Ph.D. in astrophysics to see that the state of the observatory is embarrassing. It hasn’t been renovated since 1986, and the dome, which needs to open in order to use the telescope, constantly breaks. The telescope’s clock drive, a device used to keep stars and planets in the same field of vision, hasn’t worked consistently for 20 years. There are serious structural problems in the building as well; water leaks and cracks in the foundation are a persistent cause for concern. Unfortunately, according to Professor Wesley Matthews, who has been involved with the observatory since 1985, “the observatory is a National Historical Landmark, but at too low of a level to be eligible for funding to refurbish it.”
So, basically, what we have is a crumbling old building with a huge telescope that is barely usable. Why should the University save it? Because students care. They want to know what the building looks like, and they want to try out the telescope for themselves. When I give tours of the observatory, everyone responds with awe. In fact, now that you know that I have the key to the observatory, you’ll probably try to hunt me down and make me take you up there. (Curse you, Georgetown directory!)
Aside from satisfying the curiosity of Georgetown students, however, the telescope is still functioning. With a little financial help, it could provide academic enrichment to amateur stargazers and professional astronomers alike. Astronomical Society members who, like me, believe in its potential, have tried to revamp the observatory and telescope, but to no avail. I recently found a binder entitled “CCD Grant Proposal” as I was digging around in the Observatory. It outlines a pitch to have a charge-coupled device attached to the telescope, which would have allowed it to take clear and crisp pictures of the night sky despite the high levels of light pollution present in the D.C. area.
In 1993 Joseph Stein, then-president of the club, developed the idea for the grant. It didn’t go anywhere until Michael Crisera and Megan O’Brien revived the project in 1996. The 1996 proposal even said that Stein, who by then was working at the Seattle Science Museum, was willing to fly to D.C. to help set up the device. I had never heard of this grant proposal before and, as far as I know, it never ended up getting passed. It was almost bittersweet reading Stein’s typed “goals and projects” packet. He called the CCD grant a “monster…like huge!” and wrote, “IT MUST BE OURS!!!”
I know how to find Orion’s belt and I keep telling people where Jupiter is. (You can see it right now if you go outside—no lie. It’s the huge white dot in the sky that doesn’t twinkle.) I joined the Astronomical Society to learn more. I actually scoped the group out at my very first Student Activities Commission fair. I’m that kid from New York City who tried to learn the night sky by heart, but couldn’t because of light pollution.
I came to Georgetown thinking I could join a club with access to an amazing telescope, only to discover that the observatory was in a terrible state. The University should do something to save the observatory and its telescope. It’s simply far too valuable and has too much potential to be sitting around, slowly falling apart in a black hole of apathy.