The View From the Top of Pupin

Although the Pupin basement houses the legendary cyclotron of Manhattan Project lore, the Pupin roof holds just as much historical-and scenic-allure.

Named after Lewis Morris Rutherford, Columbia's observatory was built in 1926, immediately following the construction of Pupin Hall in 1925. A distinguished astronomer in his time, Rutherford's key contribution to science was his invention of a photographic method of obtaining accurate star positions, which advanced astronomic research everywhere.

In December 1883, Rutherford donated the refractor telescope with which he conducted his research, along with all his prized photo negatives, to Columbia University. After Columbia's move to the Morningside Heights campus, the telescope was stored in the basement of Low Library until 1927 and loaned to the Smithsonian Institution in 1961. According to Astronomy professor Joseph Patterson, the Rutherford telescope is currently making rounds in France and Quebec as part of an astronomy exhibit on the moon.

"There was a time when there was much less light pollution and people could actually do research-level astronomy," Neil Zimmerman, an astronomy student of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, said of the current observatory. Nowadays, the observatory is used for teaching undergraduates and public viewings which are held roughly once or twice a month, weather permitting.

According to Zimmerman, 40 people show up on a typical viewing night-mostly people from around the city and a handful of Columbia students.

In 1972, the Rutherford Observatory acquired a new addition: one of the world's smallest and most high-tech radio telescopes, designed by then-professor Patrick Thaddeus and a team of Columbia students. The technology of the radio telescope enabled researchers to conduct observations without being hampered by the light and sound pollution of the city by relying on frequency. Thaddeus conducted significant research with the telescope, including gathering data via detecting carbon monoxide emissions, which was pivotal in the mapping of the Milky Way.

Unfortunately, when Thaddeus left for Harvard University in the late 1980s, he took the radio telescope with him. The radio telescope was replaced with a second telescope, which still sits in the smaller, 10-foot-high dome today.

In 1916, the observatory also acquired a historical 12-3/8-inch refractor telescope that was built by the Alvan Clarke and Sons firm. In 1997, the University sold the telescope to the South Carolina State Museum and replaced it with the modern telescope that is there today. The Clarke telescope was allegedly originally made for the Czarist government of Russia for the purpose of observing an upcoming solar eclipse, but when the newly installed Lenin government refused to pay for the telescope, Columbia became the new buyer.

The next public viewing date is Nov. 17. In addition, the Columbia astronomy department will be sponsoring a public viewing of Mercury's transit across the sun Wednesday between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. on Low Plaza.