White Memorial Observatory
Built in 1997 by members of the Mattatuck Astronomical Society (MAS), the Dorrit Hoffleit observatory at White Memorial has been a tremendous asset to the club members and the public. The observatory is currently maintained and operated by the Litchfield Hills club. In late 2019 we removed the 17.5″ telescope and put in three concrete piers to support three computerized telescopes. And on June 15, 2020, a day that live forever in the club’s history, we conducted our first star party with two new (well, new to us) telescopes. We now have 14″ and 12″ (large by amateur standards) computerized Schmidt-Cassegrain scopes. With these we have vastly improved the star party experience and supplemented our members’ own equipment. Work on the electrical system and roof continues.
The observatory is named for E. Dorrit Hoffleit (1907-2007), an American astronomer noted for her work on variable stars and star catalogs. You can read about her life and career at Wikipedia – Dorrit Hoffleit.
Latest weather at White Memorial
Clear Sky Chart
Read this reference to understand the color coding. In a nutshell, if you see lots of blue blocks, especially in the cloud cover section there is a high chance it will be clear then. White blocks are bad.