The Dyer Observatory, also known as the Arthur J. Dyer Observatory, is an

astronomical Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest include ...

observatory An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysics, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. Th ...

owned and operated by

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private university, private research university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provide ...

. Built in 1953, it is located in

Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

, and is the only university facility not located on the main campus in

. The observatory is named after Arthur J. Dyer, who paid for the observatory's -wide dome, and houses a

reflecting telescope A reflecting telescope (also called a reflector) is a telescope that uses a single or a combination of curved mirrors that reflect light and form an image. The reflecting telescope was invented in the 17th century by Isaac Newton as an alternati ...

named for astronomer

Carl Seyfert Carl Keenan Seyfert (February 11, 1911 – June 13, 1960) was an American astronomer. He is best known for his 1943 research paper on high-excitation line emission from the centers of some spiral galaxies, which are named Seyfert galaxies after ...

. Today, the observatory primarily serves as a teaching tool; its mission is to interest the public in the fields of astronomy,

science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

and

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

. The observatory was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

on March 6, 2009. (78 pages, including historic photos, blueprints, maps, diagrams and 36 color photos)

History

Vanderbilt's first observatory was housed on the campus itself. It was equipped with a

refracting telescope A refracting telescope (also called a refractor) is a type of optical telescope that uses a lens (optics), lens as its objective (optics), objective to form an image (also referred to a dioptrics, dioptric telescope). The refracting telescope d ...

and was the site of E. E. Barnard's earliest astronomical work. Barnard would eventually discover 16 comets and the fifth moon of

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a Jupiter mass, mass more than 2.5 times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined a ...

, receive the only

honorary degree An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...

Vanderbilt has ever awarded, and have the on-campus observatory named in his honor. However, that on-campus observatory would eventually prove insufficient for the university's needs. When Seyfert joined the university's faculty in 1946, he lobbied for increasing the astronomy department's modest course offerings and for a new observatory. He solicited donations from over 80

businesses to outfit the new observatory and convinced Dyer, owner of Nashville Bridge Company, to donate the funds for and to install the observatory's dome. When the observatory opened in December 1953, Seyfert was named its director, and, after his death, the telescope was named in his honor. The dome was originally painted aluminium, but this caused problems with observations before midnight while the telescope dome cooled. It was subsequently painted white in 1963, which significantly reduced the temperature of the dome and improved observations.

References

External links

Vanderbilt Dyer Observatory homepage

Vanderbilt Dyer Observatory Clear Sky Clock
Forecasts of observing conditions. {{Authority control Vanderbilt University Astronomical observatories in Tennessee University and college buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee Buildings and structures in Williamson County, Tennessee National Register of Historic Places in Williamson County, Tennessee

History

See also

References

External links