Things to do: Cincinnati Observatory

I grew up with a healthy (obsessive) love of the universe as a great, big, beautiful place that was out of reach. I’ve always said I hated that I was born too late for sea exploration and too early for casual space travel. My first tattoo was the constellation Orion (my favorite), and I’ve gotten four more with space or star motifs since then. My middle name also bears the mark of the cosmos. All of this is thanks to my dad.

My dad with his small collection of small telescopes, keeps up with all meteor showers, comets, and more things worth trying to see. My dad who would put lawn chairs up on our country road in the middle of the night with a lantern or flashlight, so we could watch the stars (and for cars), and who would have Carl Sagan playing on the TV or radio as background noise. This year for Father’s Day I bought him an afternoon tea experience at the Cincinnati Observatory as our first visit there.

I found out about the event through their Instagram Account that I had recently found by accident. They were doing the tea, a small history lesson, and tour which sounded perfect. I searched their website for events and learned that currently they are under renovation, with plans to reopen in full Summer 2027. They are still hosting many things in the meantime but are by appointment only instead of walk ins for a while.

We would get a few hours in the afternoon to see the Mitchel building that is open, the Mitchel Telescope and the grounds from the Observatory’s home on top of Mount Lookout in Cincinnati. The Herget Building and Clark Telescope are unavailable for now. We pulled up to the circle parking and got to start the day with looking at their ground sun dial installed in the center of the parking lot. It has markers based on each month of the year so you can get the time no matter when it is.

We then wandered the grounds a little to take in the buildings and yard. We got to learn about the history of the site (Built in 1843 with the corner stone laid by former President John Q Adams and nicknamed The Lighthouse of the Sky) and gained an immediate new perspective when we learned their founding Astronomer Ormsby MacKnight Mitchel, obtained the optical elements for the world’s second largest refractor telescope at the time that is still housed there today and is the oldest instrument in the United States now. This same telescope is the one we would get to use this day. I mean seriously. We had no idea and it’s somewhere so close to visit often if we sign up for events and becomes members. We also got to see a dedicated marker for Neil Armstrong, another Ohioan and his time on the moon.

The Mitchel building was open as the event venue and we got to view the telescope in the closed dome while the team was settings things up. Everything feels delightfully heavy with the age and historical significance they boasted in the room. From the creaking wood floors to hand cranked dome to open for viewing and metal retractable roof. I am used to the more modern telescopes shown on TV and in movies and this one ignited my history loving side in it’s old fashioned design and less shiny materials.

A small gift shop was also set up and my father delighted in the stuffed, plushy planets for sale and we ended up buying a piece of meteorite. They had multiple for sale from various locations around the world.

We were set up in a small side room with a stage and projector and tables for the Afternoon tea. We were served a lovely spread of finger sandwiches, cookies, scones, and brownies from local shops and had multiple teas from the local farmer’s market to choose from as well. We were given gifts at our seats as well. After a social hour, we were treated to a presentation on the history of Women’s fashion and Tea etiquette.

Afterwards they opened the dome and set up the Mitchel telescope so we could have a viewing of the sun. It has 2 telescope tubes and lenses for difference types of viewing. One was covered in a screen that made the sun appear as a white disk to view sun spots as dark spots. The second was my favorite that was a straight up look at the edge of our Sol. We could see it in a red giant form and solar flares on the edge we were focused on. I have never gotten to see this directly before and we were given our own time to enjoy as we wanted without being rushed.

We then were able to wander the grounds more and found and experienced their solar walk which is a replica of our solar system from our Sun to Pluto to give an idea of the distance between each celestial body to scale.

The women running the event were extremely knowledgeable and kind and the event was smooth and fun for us. We had adults of various generations all united in a love of the universe and finger foods. This cemented the observatory as a new destination for my father and I to return many times.

So if you are in town be sure to open their site and find any excuse to visit and bask in our cosmos and history.