The Dearborn Observatory is one of the great hidden gems at Northwestern. Tucked away behind the Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary (a cool, Hogwartsian building in itself) in a shaded spot on mid-campus, Dearborn is easy to miss even though tons of students pass right by it everyday. Every Friday night, the general public is invited to take a look through Dearborn’s huge telescope and try their hand at star gazing. The crowd is usually made up of Northwestern students and a graduate student or professor there to run the telescope. Pretty much just you and the stars, in the middle of a city.
Walking into the Dearborn tower kind of feels like walking into a different world — you’re in this empty wood-paneled room with just a computer off to the side. You can request different constellations or planets you’d like to take a look at, and the telescope operator will punch some numbers in the computer that rotate the dome of the tower (I’m not going to lie, I geeked out a little bit at that part) so you can either take a look with your naked eye or use the telescope. The grad student or professor will also let you know which stars or planets are most visible on the night you visit, so you’ll get a great experience no matter what the conditions are outside. Plus, getting away from the hustle and bustle of campus to take a look at the night sky isn’t the worst way to spend some downtime on a Friday.
One major reason I also really like the Dearborn Observatory is because it’s something wonderful on campus that doesn’t necessarily relate to my coursework. (There are obviously students on campus studying astronomy and astrophysics that make more academic use of the observatory than I do). But I love that there are things on campus — this is a prime example — that function as something that solely exists to add to the Northwestern experience. Spending time at Dearborn is partially educational, yes, but mainly it’s just a cool, underrated place at NU. When else am I going to have the chance to basically have a guided tour of the stars for free?
–Ava Wallace