Morgan–Monroe Observatory

Morgan–Monroe Observatory, operated by Indiana University in Morgan–Monroe State Forest near Bloomington, was created as a darker-sky successor to the university’s Goethe Link Observatory when light pollution reduced that older site’s research value. Developed in the 1960s, it began its research role with a 41-centimeter Boller and Chivens Cassegrain reflector installed in 1966. In 1989, that telescope became the automated Roboscope, used to monitor cataclysmic variable stars through efficient repeated exposures. The observatory expanded again in 1997 with Spectrabot, an automated 1.25-meter Ritchey–Chrétien reflector. Its history reflects astronomy’s broader shift toward remote, specialized, computer-controlled observing.

Indiana · United States