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Nicholas R. Anderson Observatory

.5mtelescope
The 0.5m Corrected Dall-Kirkham Optical Telescope at the Anderson Observatory.

Open Houses

Public Open Houses will be held on Friday evenings when classes are in session during the Fall and Spring Semesters, weather permitting. The docent(s) conducting the Open House will use the eVscope and Orion XT10g telescopes.  The eVscope allows for visitors to record images on their own cell phones as a record of what was observed. The Orion XT10g allows for visitors to see objects in the universe with their own eyes.

evscope
eVscope
orion
Orion XT10g

To find out if a particular Open House will occur go to the webpage Astronomy Club of Virginia Tech

Location and Directions

The Observatory is located 10 minutes from campus off of Prices Fork Road. You can get an exact location by entering "Nicholas R. Anderson Observatory" into "Google Maps."

location
observatory

To get to the Anderson Observatory from within Blacksburg:

  1. Travel west on Prices Fork Road, past the 460 bypass, towards Radford. 
  2. Pass the Foxridge/Hethwood area, Hethwood Shopping Center, Fire Station, Kipps Elementary School, and Blacksburg Middle School (in that order).
  3. At the next traffic light turn right onto Old Mill Road. (On the left at that light is the entrance to Blacksburg High School.)
  4. Travel about 1/2 mile on Old Mill Road.
  5. Come to a gate on the right, beyond which The Observatory can be seen. It looks like a short silo. 
  6. Please close the gate after driving through --- the area surrounding the Observatory is a Tech livestock pasture.

Observing Forecast

The darker the square, the better the viewing conditions. Click the image for more instructions on how to read the chart.