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Rebecca Gale Telescope Park, McDonald Observatory, TX

Photo: Zereshk, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped and resized.

Sports & Outdoors

Rebecca Gale Telescope Park

An outdoor telescope park behind the Frank N. Bash Visitors Center, known for its public Star Parties.

3640 Dark Sky Drive, McDonald Observatory, TX 79734 · McDonald Observatory, TX

About Rebecca Gale Telescope Park

The park sits behind the Frank N. Bash Visitors Center at McDonald Observatory and serves both public programs and scientific work. It holds a range of instruments, including several reflectors, Ritchey-Chretien and Cassegrain designs, and the Chow Telescope, a 20-inch unit housed in an Ash dome. Visitors can look through these instruments during Star Parties, though only a selection is open to the public at each program. Common targets include planets and galaxies. The Wren-Marcario Accessible Telescope was built with a fixed eyepiece and concrete pad so that wheelchair users can take part. Many instruments were funded by private donors, and the park's public observatory dates to 1988.

  • #telescopes
  • #star parties
  • #stargazing
  • #observatory
  • #accessible

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