The Leitner Family Observatory & Planetarium is a facility of the Yale Department of Astronomy dedicated to education, public outreach, and student research.
The observatory has two permanently mounted telescopes. The historic 8-inch Reed refractor, mounted in the east dome, was purchased by Yale in 1882 to study the transit of Venus across the face of the sun that occurred that year. The telescope was refurbished in 2004, and it is now used for visual observations of planets and stars. A computer-controlled, 0.4 meter reflecting telescope is mounted in the west dome.
