Pine Bluff Observatory in Cross Plains, Wisconsin, about twenty-four kilometers west of Madison, opened in 1958 as a University of Wisconsin–Madison facility for teaching and research. Owned and operated by the university, it primarily serves students and faculty while also providing a place to test new astronomical instruments. Work conducted there has included measuring the lunar sodium tail, monitoring circumstellar disks around Be stars, and studying the warm ionized medium. Through both hands-on instruction and observational research, the observatory has maintained an important role in the university’s astronomy program.