Detroit Observatory
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Detroit Observatory is located on the corner of Observatory and Ann streets in
Ann Arbor, Michigan Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County, Michigan, Washtenaw County. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851. It is the principal city of the Ann Arbor ...
. It was built in 1854, and was the first scientific research facility at the
University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
and one of the oldest observatories of its type in the nation. It was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1958 and placed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 1973.


Building the Observatory

Henry Philip Tappan Henry Philip Tappan (April 18, 1805 – November 15, 1881) was an American philosopher, educator and academic administrator. He is officially considered the first president of the University of Michigan.The University of Michigan was establi ...
was inaugurated as the president of the University of Michigan in December 1852, and in his inaugural speech appealed to the citizens of
Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
to support research and laboratory space at the University. Immediately afterward, Tappan was approached by
Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
businessman (and former
Michigan Attorney General The Attorney General of the State of Michigan is the fourth-ranking official in the U.S. state of Michigan. The officeholder is elected statewide in the November general election alongside the governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, m ...
) Henry N. Walker, who offered assistance. Tappan suggested raising funds for an observatory, and Walker agreed to spearhead a fundraising drive. Walker soon raised over $7000 from the citizens of Detroit, a figure that increased to a total of $18,760 over the next few years. This included $4000 of Walker's own money, and contributions from Lewis Cass,
Henry Porter Baldwin Henry Porter Baldwin (February 22, 1814 – December 31, 1892), a descendant of pilgrim father Nathaniel Baldwin, was the 15th governor of Michigan and U.S. Senator from the state of Michigan. Early life in Rhode Island Baldwin was born to Jo ...
, Senator
Zachariah Chandler Zachariah Chandler (December 10, 1813 – November 1, 1879) was an American businessman, politician, one of the founders of the Republican Party, whose radical wing he dominated as a lifelong abolitionist. He was mayor of Detroit, a four-term sena ...
and others. Additional funds were supplied by the
Board of Regents of the University of Michigan The Regents of the University of Michigan, sometimes referred to as the board of regents, are constitutional officers of the U.S. state of Michigan who collectively form the governing body of the University of Michigan, comprising the campuses ...
, giving a total of $22,000 for the building and instruments. In 1853, land in Ann Arbor was obtained for the building site, and George Bird of New York was hired to superintend construction of the building. To design the building, Tappan turned to Richard Harrison Bull, a
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...
civil engineering professor, amateur astronomer, and former student of Tappan's. Construction was completed in 1854, and the building was named the Detroit Observatory to recognize the benefactors who funded its construction. The building housed a 12⅝-inch (32 cm)
Henry Fitz Henry Fitz Jr. (December 31, 1808 - November 7, 1863) was an American engineer, scientist, locksmith, optician, inventor and a pioneer of photography in the United States. Personal life Fitz was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts on December ...
Jr.
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 ...
in the dome. The Fitz was the third largest refracting telescope in the world when it was installed in 1857. A 6-inch (15 cm) Pistor & Martins
meridian circle The meridian circle is an instrument for timing of the passage of stars across the local meridian, an event known as a culmination, while at the same time measuring their angular distance from the nadir. These are special purpose telescopes moun ...
was installed in the east wing, while the west wing served as a library and office space for the director.


Later editions and modifications to the building

In 1890, the dome rotation mechanisms were revamped. In 1868, a director's residence was added on the west end of the building. The residence was enlarged and improved in 1905-06, and another, larger wing containing academic and office space was added in 1908. The 1908 addition included a second dome and space for a new reflecting telescope. The director's residence was demolished in 1954 to make way for the expansion of nearby Couzens Hall; the 1908 addition was demolished in 1976. The function of the Detroit Observatory on campus was gradually taken over by other University of Michigan observatories. The observatories of the University of Michigan include the Detroit Observatory (1854), the
Angell Hall Observatory Angell Hall Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by University of Michigan. It is located on the UM Central Campus on top of Angell Hall in Ann Arbor, Michigan (US). It has a computer-controlled 0.4-m Cassegrain telesco ...
(a student observatory, 1927), the
Lamont–Hussey Observatory The Lamont–Hussey Observatory (LHO) was an astronomical observatory owned and operated by the University of Michigan (UM). It was located in the city of Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa. Construction at the site began in 1927, and the f ...
(South Africa, 1928) and the
McMath–Hulbert Observatory The McMath-Hulbert Solar Observatory is a solar observatory in Lake Angelus, Michigan, USA. It was established in 1929 as a private observatory by father and son Francis Charles McMath and Robert Raynolds McMath and their friend, Judge Henry Hu ...
(
Lake Angelus, Michigan Lake Angelus is a city in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is an affluent suburb of Detroit, with one of the highest per capita incomes of any community in the state. History In the early 1900s, a small community formed around t ...
, 1930). The astronomy department moved from the building in 1963, and the Detroit Observatory was used first as a library, then as a storeroom. It soon became derelict, and in the 1970s was threatened with complete demolition. However, the building was placed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 1973, and restored in 1997-98. In 2005, the Detroit Observatory became a division of the
Bentley Historical Library The Bentley Historical Library is the campus archive for the University of Michigan and is located on the University of Michigan's North Campus in Ann Arbor. It was established in 1935 by the regents of the University of Michigan. Its mission i ...
. In 2009, as part of the Astronomy Theme Semester in honor of the
International Year of Astronomy The International Year of Astronomy (IYA2009) was a year-long celebration of astronomy that took place in 2009 to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the first recorded astronomical observations with a telescope by Galileo Galilei and the pu ...
, The Bentley and the Department of Astronomy began hosting regular public events and select classes at the observatory. In 2019, the building closed for construction of the Classroom and Accessibility Addition intended to support expanded programming, reopening in April 2022.


Astronomy and other sciences at the Detroit Observatory

The faculty of the Detroit Observatory made significant contributions to the development of American astronomy in the second half of the 19th century.  The observatory’s first director,
Franz Brünnow Franz Friedrich Ernst Brünnow (18 November 1821 – 20 August 1891) was a German astronomer. He was the first foreigner to become director of an American observatory, serving as director of Detroit Observatory (at the University of Michiga ...
, was recruited to the University of Michigan by President Tappan in 1856.  Brünnow was an astronomer at the Royal Observatory in Berlin, then under the direction of
Johann Franz Encke Johann Franz Encke (; 23 September 179126 August 1865) was a German astronomer. Among his activities, he worked on the calculation of the periods of comets and asteroids, measured the distance from the Earth to the Sun, and made observations ...
, when Tappan met him.  Brünnow agreed to oversee on Tappan’s behalf the fabrication of the meridian circle telescope by the German firm Pistor & Martins.  When Brünnow expressed admiration for the quality of the instrument, Tappan took the opportunity to invite him to Michigan. Possibly encouraged by Encke and
Alexander von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 17696 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister, p ...
, Brünnow accepted.  He was already well known for his presence at the discovery of Neptune in 1846 and for his textbook ''Lerhbuch der Sphärischen Astronomie''. Brünnow augmented the astronomy curriculum at the University of Michigan, building it around the “German Method,” which emphasized rigorous mathematics, close observation, and reduction of observer, observational, and instrumental error by the method of least squares. At the Detroit Observatory, he implemented the most substantial formal course in astronomy offered in the United States up to that point. The two-year course involved extensive mathematics as well as training on the Detroit Observatory’s telescopes. Brünnow’s own analysis of the tolerances of the Pistor & Martins meridian circle was seen for many years as a masterpiece of the method. Brünnow himself carried out a research program on asteroids, comets, and stellar parallax. He launched the journal ''Astronomical Notices'', the first academic journal at the University of Michigan and one of the first in the country; ''Astronomical Notices'' published the work of American and European astronomers. The legacy of the program that Brünnow launched was that by the end of the century, by one estimate, about a quarter of the leading astronomers and meteorologists in the United States had trained at the Detroit Observatory. It was, as
Cleveland Abbe Cleveland Abbe (December 3, 1838 – October 28, 1916) was an American meteorologist and advocate of time zones. While director of the Cincinnati Observatory in Cincinnati, Ohio, he developed a system of telegraphic weather reports, daily w ...
said, “the place to study astronomy.” Brünnow's student
James Craig Watson James Craig Watson (January 28, 1838 – November 22, 1880) was a Canadian-American astronomer, discoverer of comets and minor planets, director of the University of Michigan's Detroit Observatory in Ann Arbor, and awarded with the Lalande Priz ...
became the second director of the Observatory in 1863. Watson had served as acting director for one year in 1859-60, during which Brünnow had gone to serve as associate director of the
Dudley Observatory Dudley Observatory is an astronomical observatory originally located in Albany, New York, and now in Loudonville, New York. It is no longer operating as a scientific observatory, but remains the oldest non-academic institution of astronomical r ...
in Albany. Watson continued the rigorous program of education and research that Brünnow had started — although he was by many reports an indifferent instructor, except with those in whom he saw significant talent for astronomy. He was less inclined than Brünnow to give students time at the telescopes, which led to student complaints. Finally in 1878, Watson obtained funds from the federal government to erect a small observatory southeast of the Detroit Observatory to observe the transit of Mercury. That observatory was subsequently dedicated to student use and included a three-inch transit telescope and a 3-inch transit telescope and a 6-inch equatorial refractor. The student observatory was relocated to the west side of the main observatory in 1908 and again relocated in 1926 to the
roof A roof ( : roofs or rooves) is the top covering of a building, including all materials and constructions necessary to support it on the walls of the building or on uprights, providing protection against rain, snow, sunlight, extremes of te ...
of Angell Hall. Watson was renowned for his observational and mathematical skill.  He was for many years engaged in an informal competition with C.H.F. Peters of
Hamilton College Hamilton College is a private liberal arts college in Clinton, Oneida County, New York. It was founded as Hamilton-Oneida Academy in 1793 and was chartered as Hamilton College in 1812 in honor of inaugural trustee Alexander Hamilton, following ...
to discover asteroids.  During the period 1863 to 1877 Watson discovered a total of 22 asteroids, or nearly a quarter of the asteroids discovered during that period.  Among Watson’s most significant accomplishments was the discovery of six asteroids in one year, 1868, an unprecedented achievement for which he was awarded the
Lalande Prize The Lalande Prize (French: ''Prix Lalande'' also known as Lalande Medal) was an award for scientific advances in astronomy, given from 1802 until 1970 by the French Academy of Sciences. The prize was endowed by astronomer Jérôme Lalande in 180 ...
by the French Academic of Sciences. Watson also undertook research into comets and became embroiled in controversy over his claim to have discovered the intra-Mercurial planet
Vulcan Vulcan may refer to: Mythology * Vulcan (mythology), the god of fire, volcanoes, metalworking, and the forge in Roman mythology Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * Vulcan (''Star Trek''), name of a fictional race and their home p ...
. He worked extensively on mapping the Washington Zones and made other contributions. However, Watson left the University of Michigan in 1879 to oversee construction of the
Washburn Observatory The Washburn Observatory ( obs. code: 753) is an astronomical observatory located at 1401 Observatory Drive on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Completed in 1881, it was a major research facility ...
at the
University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...
, having failed to convince the Regents of the University of Michigan to fund a larger telescope for the Detroit Observatory. He died unexpectedly shortly after moving to Wisconsin.


Observatory directors and notable students

Tappan recruited
Franz Brünnow Franz Friedrich Ernst Brünnow (18 November 1821 – 20 August 1891) was a German astronomer. He was the first foreigner to become director of an American observatory, serving as director of Detroit Observatory (at the University of Michiga ...
as the first director of the observatory in 1854. Among Brünnow's students during his tenure at the Detroit Observatory were
Asaph Hall Asaph Hall III (October 15, 1829 – November 22, 1907) was an American astronomer who is best known for having discovered the two moons of Mars, Deimos and Phobos, in 1877. He determined the orbits of satellites of other planets and of double s ...
, De Volson Wood,
Cleveland Abbe Cleveland Abbe (December 3, 1838 – October 28, 1916) was an American meteorologist and advocate of time zones. While director of the Cincinnati Observatory in Cincinnati, Ohio, he developed a system of telegraphic weather reports, daily w ...
, and
James Craig Watson James Craig Watson (January 28, 1838 – November 22, 1880) was a Canadian-American astronomer, discoverer of comets and minor planets, director of the University of Michigan's Detroit Observatory in Ann Arbor, and awarded with the Lalande Priz ...
. Brünnow stayed until 1863, when he was succeeded by James Craig Watson. Watson served for 16 years, and among his students were
Otto Julius Klotz Otto Julius Klotz ''OLS, DLS, DTS'' (March 31, 1852 – December 28, 1923) was a Canadian astronomer and Dominion Surveyor. He was born in Preston (Cambridge), Upper Canada, the son of Otto Klotz and Elise (Elizabeth) Wilhelm, Klotz was educ ...
,
Robert Simpson Woodward Robert Simpson Woodward (July 21, 1849 – June 29, 1924) was an American civil engineer, physicist and mathematician. Biography He was born at Rochester, Michigan on July 21, 1849, to Lysander Woodward and Peninah A. Simpson.
, George Cary Comstock,
Marcus Baker Marcus Baker (September 23, 1849 – December 12, 1903) was an American naturalist, explorer of Alaska, journalist, and newspaper editor. Early life and education Baker was born September 23, 1849, in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and graduated ...
, and
John Martin Schaeberle John Martin Schaeberle (January 10, 1853 – September 17, 1924) was a German-American astronomer. Biography He was born Johann Martin Schäberle in Württemberg, Germany, but in 1854 immigrated as an infant to the United States. Most sources r ...
. The full list of directors of the Detroit Observatory is as follows:


Building description

The Detroit Observatory, located on the campus of the University of Michigan, is a two-story
hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope (although a tented roof by definition is a hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak). Thus, ...
rectangular frame structure, on a side, flanked by two one-story wings, each by . The design is typical of observatories built in the 19th century. The structure is constructed of solid brick clad with
stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...
originally painted to resemble granite blocks. It is capped with a large revolving dome built of wood and canvas, in diameter. A small
portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...
covers the front entrance.


See also

*
List of astronomical observatories This is a list of astronomical observatories ordered by name, along with initial dates of operation (where an accurate date is available) and location. The list also includes a final year of operation for many observatories that are no longer in ...


References


Further reading

* *


External links


Detroit Observatory website
{{Authority control
Astronomical observatories in Michigan {{GeoGroup Michi Michi may refer to: People ;Given name * Michi (born 1996), Japanese J-pop singer * MiChi (born 1985), British singer * Michi Atkins, former WNBA basketball player *Michi Beck (born 1967), DJ and MC of the German hip hop group '' ...
University and college buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan University of Michigan 1854 establishments in Michigan Buildings and structures in Ann Arbor, Michigan Tourist attractions in Ann Arbor, Michigan University of Michigan campus National Register of Historic Places in Washtenaw County, Michigan Michigan State Historic Sites in Washtenaw County, Michigan