page_title: Fuertes Observatory
section_title: Telescopes
hierarchical_section_title: Fuertes Observatory / Telescopes
caption_attribution_description: English: 12", f/15 refractor at Cornell University's Fuertes Observatory
context_page_description: Fuertes Observatory is an astronomical observatory located on the North Campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. The observatory was designed by L.P. Burnham, Cornell Professor of Architecture and completed in fall of 1917. It was originally used by the Civil Engineering Department as an instructional field office for navigation and surveying. Today, the observatory is primarily used for public outreach, welcoming over two thousand visitors per year with open houses on clear Friday nights.
  The facility is currently maintained by the Cornell Department of Astronomy, though open houses are routinely managed by the Cornell Astronomical Society, a group of Cornell undergraduates, graduate students, and Ithaca citizens.
  The observatory is named after the Puerto Rican-American astronomer and builder of Cornell's first observatory, Estevan Antonio Fuertes.
context_section_description: The observatory contains a 12-inch refracting telescope with a weight-driven mechanical clock drive. The original glass blanks that were to become the optics were procured in 1919 by Prof. Irving P. Church, head of the Cornell Department of Civil Engineering; the two-element lens was ground and polished by the well-known firm of Brashear & Co. and delivered to Cornell in 1920. In January 1922, a contract was given to the Warner and Swasey Co. of Cleveland, Ohio to build the mount. On October 16, 1922, the telescope was erected upon its German equatorial mount in the central dome of the Fuertes Observatory. The observatory's original 4.5-inch telescope was mounted onto the 12-inch refractor, and currently serves as the finder scope.
  The observatory also contains several transit telescopes, zenith scopes, and other antique astronomical instruments used by Civil Engineers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries for geodesy and timekeeping. These instruments are on display in a museum that occupies the east wing of the building.
caption: The Irving Porter Church Telescope on its original German Equatorial Mount built by Warner & Swasey.
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