Perkins Observatory

PERKINS OBSERVATORY was founded in 1923 and is an active research facility used by the faculty and students of the OWU Physics and Astronomy Department.However, we DO have many public programs (day and night) for those interested in Astronomy.We are the ONLY observatory in central Ohio which conducts hundreds of public programs for tens of thousands of people each and every year! Perkins Observatory has the second-largest telescope in the State of Ohio. And a Ghost. The ghost is Hiram Mills Perkins, who was a professor of mathematics and astronomy at Ohio Wesleyan from 1857 to 1907. Perkins loved the stars and was obsessed with someday building an observatory to study the cosmos. It is claimed that he wore the same suit every day for 10 years as part of his plan to save money to build an observatory. During the Civil War, he took a leave of absence to raise pigs to sell to the Union forces. The money he raised from that venture, and his frugal ways, enabled him to save up $250,00. He presented the money to the university in 1923, with the stipulation that htey build an observatory of the "first magnitude". Sadly, he died before the building was completed. Through the years there have been reports of an old man who appears in the dome sometimes late at night and just watches as people line up to peer through the telescope.