Just north at 10350 Clay Street, or accessible via woodland trails, find a separate entrance to the Nassau Astronomical Station, which was renovated and reopened in August 2017. The Nassau Astronomical Station was built in 1957 by the Warner & Swasey Company of Cleveland; researchers at Case Western Reserve University used it for visual study of the heavens through the ‘80s. Geauga Park District teamed with CWRU to offer public Astronomy Nights at Nassau from 1994 to 2005, and after CWRU discontinued use of the station, it sold the facility to Geauga Park District in 2008.

“Nassau Astronomical Station’s 36” Warner & Swasey telescope is one of the largest public viewing scopes in the state of Ohio,” Geauga Park District Executive Director John Oros said. “We are excited to provide opportunities to experience astronomy and the night skies to our residents now and for many, many years to come.”

Fundraising efforts made it possible to restore the facility and telescope to their former glory. In addition to the restoration of the area’s largest publicly accessible research-grade telescope and refurbishment of the equipment necessary for its operation, renovations to Nassau included the addition of museum features, redecorating in the historic living quarters, wheelchair accessibility to the upper telescope floor, and restrooms.

Click here to view live data from Observatory Park’s Weather Station atop the Oberle Observatory. On the top right of the page, the toolbar also offers a summary with more details and a map of other nearby weather stations.

This weather station includes a thermometer for indicating current air temperature; a barometer for gauging air pressure; a hygrometer to measure humidity; a rainfall gauge to measure recent precipitation; an anemometer to measure wind speed; and a weather vane to indicate wind direction.

Observatory Park is also part of WeatherLink®, a commercial weather service that provides real-time weather information online and also uses observations from members with automated personal weather stations like the one at Observatory Park. Live data from Observatory Park’s Seismic Station is streaming below (or, if it’s not, here is the link for access).

The seismic station includes a seismometer, which is a sensitive instrument in the ground that detects earth tremors deep in the earth’s crust, and a seismograph, which transforms a tremor’s seismic wave energy into electrical voltage that is converted into digital data, called a seismogram.

This seismic station is also part of The Ohio Seismic Network, which transmits data to help monitor earthquake activity in Ohio.