Located in Duke Forest, the Duke Teaching Observatory is operated and maintained by the Duke Physics Department.  The Observatory offers teaching and learning opportunities to students as well as opportunities for the public to come out for star gazing sessions and to learn more about the skies.  During public Open Houses skywatch sessions, the Observatory sets up five Meade LX200 GPS Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes outside in a field of Duke Forest and provides electrical outlets for others to set up equipment as well.  Visit their website at the link below for a schedule of public Open House events.

Founded in 2002, the missions of the Observatory are:

• Enhance Astronomy instruction at Duke by providing hands-on observation experiences and opportunities for small-scale research projects to students.
   
• Serve as a platform for outreach activities, helping to enhance science education in local schools by providing opportunities to experience astronomical observations and to meet with Duke faculty and students in an informal learning situation.

What Can You See?
According to the Observatory's website:  "With our telescopes, we can make out details of the Moon's surface (central peaks of craters, for example); we can see four of Jupiter's moons and clearly make out the Cassini gap in Saturn's rings; we can make out some asteroids; we can see the glowing gases of the Orion nebula or the ring nebula; we can see several galaxies and many beautiful star clusters. We cannot, for example, see the spiral structure of Andromeda. We can make out the colors of stars, especially when looking at differently-colored members of a binary pair, but for the most part objects appear too faint for our eyes to register color well."

Directions to the Observatory:
The Observatory is outside in a field in Duke Forest.  They set up the telescopes for Open House viewings.

This link will show you the exact location of the Observatory on Google Maps:  http://maps.google.com/maps?q=79.00374W,36.01399N&spn=0.059754,0.120026&hl=en 

The observatory is located in the Duke Forest, on Cornwallis Rd, about one mile west of Kerley. Driving west on Cornwallis, access is through a Duke Forest gate on the left hand side of the road. (The gate is usually locked unless observatory is open - Look for "Open House" signs.). The gravel road through the gate forks soon. Follow the road to the right around a large shed and park in front of the shed. Turn off car headlights as soon as you have stopped! Walk down the hill to your left (away from Cornwallis) to the observatory site, about 150ft. A radio tower with a flashing red light, also to the left of the road, is just west of our site. If you get to the radio tower, you have gone too far.
 

Transit of Venus taken with a telephoto lens on a tripod by Jianghai Ho