A Timeline for the Laws Observatory

University of Missouri, Columbia

1839

University of Missouri founded at Columbia, the first state university west of the Mississippi.

1853

University of Missouri Observatory built near Academic Hall (the origional columns), on the site that is now the Engineering building east. Equipped with a 4 1/16 inch Henry Fitz Refractor it is the first observatory in the western U.S.

1879

The University offers $500 cash and the 4 1/16 Fitz telescope to the failing Shelby College (Shelbyville, Ky) in exchange for thier German built 7.5 inch Merz and Sohns refractor. The exchange went through, but UMC then found that they could not afford the transport, reassemble, and build a suitable housing for the new telescope. University President Samuel S. Laws proceeded to spend $2000 of his own money to move the telescope and start construction of a new observatory to house it.

Samuel S. Laws

1880

The new observatory opens, renamed Laws Observatory. The new new location is now occupied by Neff Hall.

Laws Observatory in the early 1890's

1889

Thomas Jefferson Jackson See graduated from UMC, one of only four Doctors of Astronomy in the U.S. (although he later fell out of favor with other Astronomers and Physicists because of his vehement denouncement of Einstien's theory of Relativity).

1890

Milton Updegraff hired as the first astronomer to work at Laws Observatory. On reveiwing the aging equipment he requests funds to have Alvin Clark and Sons regrind the lens for the 7.5 inch Mertz telescope. His request is turned down. He then asks for a smaller sum to have the work done by a Boone County amature telescope maker R.B. Gans. This request was also turned down.

1892

Academic Hall burns, leaving only the columns.

1901

Fredrick Seares reorganizes Laws Observatory and begins reseach into comet positions and photometric measurements. Begins publishing in the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and The Laws Observatory Bulletins.

1907

R. Brown Gans built 4 1/2 inch equitorial refractor added to the observatory.

1908

Harlow Shapley becomes Seares assistant. He later graduates from M.U. and receives an Honorary Doctorate. Shapley later becomes Director of the Harvard College Observatory, and is best known for determining the scale of our Galaxy and the position of our Sun in it. (1)

1912

A 5 inch Brashear photograghic doublet is mounted on the 7 1/2 inch Merz.

1918

Robert Baker and Vice President C.B. Rollins are authorized by the Board of Curators to buy the Morrison Observatory in Glascow (housing a 12 1/4 inch Alvin Clark and Sons refractor) from the financially troubled Pritchett College. Negotiations proceeded with Mrs. Berenice Morrison-Fuller, but the transfer never occured.(2)

1919

The growth of trees around Laws Observatory has made it totally unusable for research. Robert Baker requests a new observatory with a 36 inch Brashear telescope, but is turned down.

1920

Laws Observatory is moved to it's third location. It occupied what is now the west parking lot of the Harry S. Truman Veterans Hospital.

1924

Eli Stuart Haynes hired as astronomer. The budget for astronomy that year was $37.50.

1945

Federal Housing Authority moves into the observatory.

1949

E.S. Haynes is cofounder of the Central Missouri Amateur Astronomers.

1950

The Federal Housing Authority leaves Laws Observatory, taking all furniture with them. Many of the instruments are broken, the wooden tube on the Merz telescope is rotting from a leaking dome. There is a terrible smell throughout the observatory from fertilizers stored in the basement. Golfers use the transit room as a changing room. The Astronomy Department is combined with the Physics Department.

1954

Central Missouri Amateur Astronomers restore the observatory. The Merz telescope is rebuilt with an aluminum tube.

1965

Professor Louis V. Holroyd gets NASA funding, and Laws Observatory becomes part of the GEOS tracking Station Camera Site program for the next four years.

1966

The new Physics Building is opened with a 16" Celestron Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope ($9300.00) installed in a rooftop dome. Two 10" Schmidt-Cassigrains were placed on piers on the rooftop. The Central Missouri Amateur Astronomers begin public nights on Friday nights with the 16 inch SCT.

1969

The old observatory building is demolished. Much of the equipment has been lost, but the old Merz refractor is salvaged and stored in the basement of the Physics Building. The original lens is on display in the pedestal room.

1973

The Laws Observatory now sits at the center of a well lit campus, which is itself in the center of a steadlly growing, light polluted city. It is usable as an educational facility only, although some photography and photometry is still done there. Ronnie C. Barnes involves the University in the Mid Continent Observatory project. The goal was to build a multi-university research facility with a 90 inch telescope to be located at Kitt Peak, Mount Hopkins, or McDonald Observatory. This project failed.

The Laws Observatory on the 5th floor of the Physics Building on the UMC campus

Laws Observatory in the 1960's and the NASA satellite tracking station

1980

Charles J. Peterson attempts another multi-university project called the Alliance for the Construction of Telescopes (ACT). This time the goal was to build a 4 meter class telescope. This project also never came to fruitation.

1990

Laws Observatory and the UMC Physics and Astronomy Department finally got access to the dark skies and a reseach grade telescope by agreeing to collaborate with Southwest Missouri State University in the running of their Baker Observatory. Located near Marshfield, Mo. (home of Edwin Hubble), it houses a 0.4 meter reflector that is on loan from the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatorym U.S. National Optical Astronomy Observatories, in northren Chile.

The 16" Celestron in room 505 (the upper dome)

The rooftop with three Celstrons and the radio telescope

2000 - and beyond:

Central Missouri Astronomical Association continues to open the observatory to the public (public nights were moved to Wednesdays in 2003). A new "Laws Virtual Observatory" is now open next to the pedestal room on the 5th floor. The LVO allows internet access to dedicated telescopes at the observatories world wide, including the upcoming "International Space Station Amateur Telescope". The "ISSAT" will be permenently attached to a truss in the International Space Station.

By R.W. Dumas (8/12/2004)

All dates are from:

Peterson, Charles J., "An Informal History of Astronomy at the University of Missouri - Columbia" 1981

and:

Peterson, Charles J., "Missouri Physics & Astronomy, 150 years of two sciences at the University of Missouri - Columbia" 1995.

With special thanks to Henry W. White, Professor and Chair, UMC Department of Physics and Astronomy.

(1) for more about harlow Shapley's time at MU. and the rest of his brilliant carrer read his book "Through Rugged Ways to the Stars", Scriber & Sons, 1969.

(2) in 1919 Pritchett College closed. The two trusts from Berenice Morrison to Morrison Observatory were diverted to the Glascow Public Schools. In 1926 the State of Missouri sued Glascow on behalf of Central College in Fayette. Finally, in 1936, the observatory was moved to Fayette where it is operated today by Central Methodist College.