{"id":21315,"date":"2026-06-04T01:15:47","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T01:15:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/06\/04\/yerkes-observatory-a-continuing-legacy-of-science-art-and-sustainability-shepherd-express\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T01:15:47","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T01:15:47","slug":"yerkes-observatory-a-continuing-legacy-of-science-art-and-sustainability-shepherd-express","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/06\/04\/yerkes-observatory-a-continuing-legacy-of-science-art-and-sustainability-shepherd-express\/","title":{"rendered":"Yerkes Observatory: A Continuing Legacy of Science, Art and Sustainability – Shepherd Express"},"content":{"rendered":"

Celebrated as \u201cthe birthplace of modern astrophysics,\u201d Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay is credited for over a century\u2019s worth of scientific breakthroughs in the field of astronomy.<\/span>
by Ben Slowey<\/a>
Community News<\/a>
Jun. 03, 2026
4:17 p.m.
Photo by Ben Slowey
Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin (2026)
Celebrated as \u201cthe birthplace of modern astrophysics,\u201d Yerkes Observatory (373 W. Geneva St.) in Williams Bay is credited for over a century\u2019s worth of scientific breakthroughs in the field of astronomy. In addition to its storied legacy with astrophotography, revolutionizing the mapping and classifying of stars, conceptualizing the vastness of the universe and launching the first graduate PhD program for astrophysics, Yerkes is home to the world\u2019s largest refracting telescope, the \u201cGreat Refractor,\u201d still in good working condition after 130 years. The observatory today champions disciplinary juxtaposition with its incorporation of new arts, science and outreach programs since long-term restoration began in 2020.
Founded in 1897 by George Ellery Hale and named after Chicago finance mogul Charles Yerkes, the observatory has housed the research of legendary astronomers such as Edwin Hubble, Albert Michelson, Otto Struve, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Nancy Grace Roman, Carl Sagan and Gerald Kuiper. It is notably where the structure of the Milky Way Galaxy was first determined. \u201cThat\u2019s probably our single most important discovery in this building,\u201d director of programs Walt Chadick says. In the early days, astronomers and professors working at Yerkes often lived in the homes lining the observatory driveway.
looking up<\/i>\u00a0into his design of the building\u2019s\u00a0trompe-l\u2019oeil\u00a0<\/i>rotunda, which is adorned with beads, buttresses, pointed archways and columns that altogether direct one\u2019s eyes up to the skylight.
That said, Yerkes\u2019 design is functional as well as aesthetically rich. The building is in a Roman cross shape where domes at either end of the \u201ccross\u201d house smaller telescopes while a large dome at the bottom has the Great Refractor. \u201cIt made it very easy to get back and forth between the domes when you have all this flow space,\u201d Chadick asserts. While the original telescopes of the smaller two domes are no longer in use, the domes presently house 24-inch and 40-inch reflecting telescopes installed by the University of Chicago in the 1960s. Shortly after the observatory\u2019s construction, cameras quickly became affixed to the telescopes with the basement containing the darkrooms while libraries and laboratories still in use today are accessible from the main hall.
The Great Refractor is roughly 64 feet long, weighs six tons and is equipped with 40-inch lenses. Getting up to the analog telescope from ground level reveals yet another of Yerkes\u2019 architectural marvels with its 74,000-pound elevating floor\u2014recognized as the world\u2019s largest indoor elevator. Looking to the ceiling, the dome spins 360 degrees. \u201cWhen we rotate it, we hear people gasp on a daily basis,\u201d Chadick attests. \u201cThis isn\u2019t just an antique. It all works and is still used. If it breaks, we have to fix it.\u201d He finds that viewing celestial bodies through the telescope can quickly become an emotional experience. \u201cI\u2019ve cried over looking at Jupiter and even the moon one time. It\u2019s the creation of existential context for your own life.\u201d
LEARN MORE<\/a>
Photo by Ben Slowey
A hypersphere of the Moon at Yerkes Observatory (2026)
In terms of astrophotography, Yerkes vaults a collection of 180,000 glass plates, which are slivers of glass displaying positive and negative photographs of stars, planets, galaxies and other cosmic phenomena between 1900 and 1970. \u201cThese really put this place on the map,\u201d Chadick notes. \u201cThis place is an architectural masterpiece, and it has the biggest telescope in the world, which made it a novelty, but the fact that it was taking pictures is what made it significant because people on Earth were seeing pictures from beyond the Moon for the first time. We take that for granted now.\u201d
When it first shared its images of space with the public, the observatory sometimes received angry letters from folks accusing astrophotography of being the devil\u2019s work. \u201cWe were just showing pictures of the neighborhood,\u201d Chadick jokes. \u201cSorry!\u201d
Amanda Bauer is head of science and education at Yerkes. Her first task upon arriving at Yerkes from\u00a0Vera C. Rubin Observatory<\/a>\u00a0in 2022 was to ascertain whether the mounted telescopes still worked, then reactivate them along with the glass plates collection. She also devised what the research portfolio and educational programs would look like, with one of her current initiatives being to train the next generation of astronomers with hands-on access to Yerkes\u2019 technology. \u201cThat\u2019s not very typical of telescopes around the world these days,\u201d she points out. \u201cIt\u2019s a treasure trove of discovery that we now have the digital tools to access. We can get to the heart of these serendipitous observations and pull out from them the science and understanding of our universe.\u201d
Photo by Ben Slowey
The Great Refractor telescope at Yerkes Observatory which was built in 1897 (2026).
Though astrophotography nowadays comes in the form of fully colored Hubble images, it took decades to achieve that level of detail and resolution. Bauer puts into perspective the sheer amount of steps that went into producing the images from Yerkes\u2019 glass plates. \u201cYou would\u2019ve had to calculate the position of an object at whatever time you were going to observe it, then get it aligned and put pieces of light-sensitive glass in line with the telescope to track an object. If you weren\u2019t exactly lined up, then you would\u2019ve gotten double images so there\u2019s skill just in capturing that. Then you have to take that plate to a darkroom and spend hours on the development process with chemicals, then analyze it. What we can now do in a matter of seconds was an entire process every single time.\u201d
The mix of analog and digital technology enables Yerkes astronomers to maximize on research obtained from the historic glass plates in a modern context. In fact, the observatory hosts undergraduate research students each summer who get trained on the telescopes and browse the glass plates to find images of certain objects through different eras. Those images then get digitized and analyzed with state-of-the-art software to determine whether the brightness or positionality of said object has changed.
Ongoing research at Yerkes involves instrumentation development led by project scientist Luke Schmidt, who is building spectrographs that measure the light properties of celestial objects. \u201cEvery object has a unique footprint, so you can learn what it\u2019s made of, how old it is, how fast it\u2019s moving or what direction,\u201d Bauer elaborates. \u201cHe\u2019s building new innovative spectroscopic techniques that we can test with our telescopes here and use our 3D printing lab to do rapid prototyping and send out to have built at scale and used for educational purposes at schools or amateur observatories.\u201d
Restoration projects since 2020 by the Yerkes Future Foundation have included making small rooms into bigger rooms, reconfiguring power systems, replacing interior and exterior bricks, installing a new rain runoff system and placing 83 solar panels atop the building. \u201cWe\u2019ve still got a lot of work to do,\u201d Chadick states, citing the dome roof and catwalks as future projects. In an effort to make Yerkes\u2019 environmental footprint as sustainable as its astronomical research, the team has overseen extensive landscaping of the observatory grounds with four miles of trails, beehives and birdhouses, newly planted native pollinators and removal of invasive flora.
Instrumental to this new chapter at Yerkes has been its introduction of arts-meets-science programming. While public astronomy events have long taken place at Yerkes, this new mission explores the many ways in which astronomy and the arts intersect. \u201cWe were pleasantly surprised to find that astronomy overlapped with sculpture and poetry and music and photography,\u201d Chadick recalls. \u201cThen we stretched it out with where the science of engineering matches up with those art forms. Is landscape design art or science? It\u2019s literally both!\u201d
These programs involve concerts, speakers, open houses, birding events, candlelight walks and hands-on workshops. Yerkes\u2019 2026 speaker series kicks off this Thursday, June 4 with former Poet Laureate of Wisconsin\u00a0Nicholas Gulig<\/a>, who is the subject of a new documentary called\u00a0Welcome Poets<\/i>. Other speakers this year are\u00a0Sweetgrass<\/i>\u00a0author\u00a0Robin Wall Kimmerer<\/a>, theoretical physicist and writer\u00a0Professor Chanda Prescod-Weinstein<\/a>, arborist and writer\u00a0Jeff Epping<\/a>, expert mycologist\u00a0Dr. Anne Pringle<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Olmsted Network<\/a>\u00a0president Sue Bretkopf.\u00a0
Chicago-based\u00a0Exploding Star Orchestra<\/a>, who write site-specific music and will be living on-site at Yerkes for a week, perform in the big dome on Friday, October 2 and Saturday, October 3. \u201cI\u2019m constantly adding programs,\u201d Chadick assures. \u201cWorking with scientists and artists is very challenging because it\u2019s two different parts of the brain and I\u2019ve got to navigate both. I\u2019m deep in the middle of that peculiar river where an astronomer and a poet are paddling in the same canoe and trying to figure out which tributary to take.\u201d
Photo by Ben Slowey
Astronomical glass plates, captured between 1900 and 1970, on display at Yerkes Observatory (2026)
Largely thanks to Wisconsin Secretary of Tourism Stephanie Klett, Yerkes has grown its reputation as a regional tourist attraction in recent years. Public tours of the observatory include the classic\u00a0Space & Spaces\u00a0tour, behind-the-scenes\u00a0Hidden Spaces\u00a0tour and youth-focused\u00a0Kids Need Space\u00a0tour. There are also ticketed night tours three days a week where folks have the opportunity to look through the Great Refractor. \u201cIf you come into an astronomy observatory and expect A, B and C, we\u2019re trying to give you M, N and O,\u201d Chadick laughs.
Besides the ticketed tours, a constant stream of K-12 field trips come through the observatory\u2019s doors. Outreach astronomer Mallory Conlon recently calculated that Yerkes has welcomed more than 4,000 students since 2023. \u201cIt\u2019s been amazing seeing groups of students come in here because you get to share this piece of history,\u201d she affirms. \u201cThe observatory was so inaccessible for so much of its existence and now we get to change that.\u201d
Conlon observes that the Moon hypersphere, housed in a room adjacent to the main hallway, attracts particular curiosity with children. \u201cThat visual connection to something that you see in the sky throughout your life to the history of astronomy research that happened in this building is really profound for a lot of students.\u201d She frequently gets questions about exoplanets as well, which for many kids opens the door to deeper conversations about whether aliens exist.
\u201cI really find art to be a way to process scientific ideas, especially for younger students,\u201d Conlon shares. \u201cIt can provide concrete and tangible callbacks for when they\u2019re remembering a scientific concept. For example, an activity I love to do with our school groups is tell them about a moon that orbits around Jupiter called Europa, which has an icy crust and is really frigid and cold. Scientists believe that under kilometers of ice that there is a saltwater ocean likely heated by hydrothermal venting. I have students design an alien that could live on Europa, so not only are they processing the different properties of that moon and how it connects to life here on Earth, but they\u2019re also thinking about what sort of traits would life need to thrive in an environment like this.\u201d
The observatory also engages in dark skies advocacy, encouraging communities to reduce light pollution whenever possible for environmental and ecological reasons. \u201cIt is a topic that culminates in what Yerkes is all about, which is the idea that humans can advocate for change that impacts many different aspects of life from astronomical research to caring about your environment,\u201d Conlon reckons. \u201cThere\u2019s also cultural considerations, where we lose a huge part of our heritage as humans when we lose the night sky. Stars were a means of not just storytelling but finding your way through this universe.\u201d
This summer, Yerkes is partnering with artist and musician\u00a0Noelia Cruz<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0A Shell in the Sky<\/i>, a curated exhibition of Indigenous artists sharing Anishinaabe art, star knowledge and cultural wisdom within the observatory. The opening ceremony is this Saturday, June 6 at 6 p.m. with the exhibit on display through October. \u201cThere\u2019s a deep history of studying and learning about the sky and how that knowledge is still being carried on today by Indigenous groups of the Midwest,\u201d Conlon acknowledges. \u201cWe\u2019re super excited about this idea coming to fruition and it will be a really special experience.\u201d
Off-campus\u00a0Astronomy On Tap<\/a>\u00a0events hosted by Yerkes take place throughout the year at\u00a0Deusterbeck\u2019s Brewery Company<\/a>\u00a0(N5543 County Rd O) in nearby Elkhorn. Conlon contends, \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of opportunities to be creative here with really special programming that truly can\u2019t happen anywhere else.\u201d
Visit the Yerkes Observatory\u00a0website<\/a>\u00a0to learn more or support its work. Purchase upcoming event tickets\u00a0here<\/a>.
Ben Slowey is a Staff Writer for the Shepherd Express whose work focuses on the intersections of community, creativity and social justice.
Jun. 03, 2026
4:17 p.m.
LEARN MORE<\/a>
LEARN MORE<\/a>
Sign up for daily email updates!<\/span><\/strong>
Get the latest news from Shepherd Express delivered directly to your inbox.
\u00a9 2026 Shepherd Express. All Rights Reserved.
As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Celebrated as \u201cthe birthplace of modern astrophysics,\u201d Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay is credited for over a century\u2019s worth of scientific breakthroughs in the field of astronomy.by Ben Slowey Community NewsJun. 03, 20264:17 p.m.Photo by Ben SloweyYerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin (2026)Celebrated as \u201cthe birthplace of modern astrophysics,\u201d Yerkes Observatory (373 W. Geneva St.) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}