Today, it is primarily used for instructional purposes, but is open for public observation of the stars on Friday evenings.

For scientific work Dartmouth has shares in the MDM Observatory on Kitt Peak, Arizona, and the Southern African Large Telescope in South Africa.

[1] The observatory was built in 1854 for Ira Young, Professor of Natural Philosophy, to designs drawn up by his brother Ammi B.

Bryant, Young was then the supervising architect of the United States Treasury Department.

[2] It is a small building with three wings and a two-story dome (20 foot diameter).