Hopkins Observatory

Hopkins Observatory at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, was built by Albert Hopkins in 1838 and is recognized as the oldest extant observatory in the United States. After Hopkins obtained astronomical equipment in England in 1834, students constructed the building between 1836 and 1838 in the center of the college quad. It was later moved in 1908 and 1961 to its present site. The observatory preserves important early instruments, including its original transit and regulator, as well as an 1852 Alvan Clark refracting telescope. It now serves as a planetarium and houses the Mehlin Museum of Astronomy.

Williamstown, Massachusetts · United States