Taylor University - Wolfe Observatory

04/01/2026

T-10! And, on hold for the moment:

04/01/2026

10 minutes to launch of Artemis 2! Humans circling the moon! First time in 50 years!

Watch live coverage as NASA launches its mammoth Space Launch System rocket with four astronauts on a mission to loop around the moon and back. Liftoff of Ar...

02/13/2026

Love this view! Circled is the rocket engine, right after shut-down and the Sun is shining on it!

Credit: NASA Space Flight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzeLlHnnhS8

01/25/2025

Just an update, for the interested parties that are members here on our little "forum".

Many thanks to the Wolfe Family for funds they have donated! We just purchased two new telescope controls: 1) Focus Motor, 2) GPS. Both hook into our main 14" Celestron EdgeHD Telescope and CGEM II Motorized Mount (about $10K worth of equipment) that sit atop the "south pier" in the Wolfe Observatory here at Taylor University.

By the way, there are (2) piers in the Wolfe Observatory! We also have a place for a third pier. However, for now, movement of our large south-mounted telescope would conflict with third middle pier, so it is not installed.

Further, back to newer equipment, a while back we also purchased the Celestron StarSense Auto-Guiding Camera with Wolfe donations! Many thanks for that too!

All of these help make it a faster process to take students up into the Observatory and pull up various Solar System entities and Deep Space asterisms, etc. We're really thankful for these additional pieces of equipment, to add to our variety of telescopes and astrophotography equipment!

Posted by:
Rob Cartwright
Physics & Engineering Lab Manager
(and Observatory Manager).

PS: We also have a student run Astronomy Club, and some semester-by-semester Advanced Physics classes that use the Wolfe Observatory. In the past few years one of the classes had students doing Jupiter-moons orbit research.

The students in that Advanced Projects Course took daily/weekly data of the moons orbiting Jupiter and did analysis for their semester grade, etc.

So, just providing a little update to interested individuals here on this "forum"! Thanks for stopping by!

05/26/2022

Just for fun....doing a occasional check-in today at

leolabs.space:

1) https://platform.leolabs.space/visualizations/leo
a looks at ALL the space stuff up there above our heads. It's really kind of fascinating!

2) Starlink Constellation (Elon Musk's global internet service provider system):
https://platform.leolabs.space/visualizations/leo?fbclid=IwAR1orlhkrxQxaif-BzC-h7BIMoaTMkENo9e7Nt6H0Q5nPhOyOctsq85QeLU =starlink;view=objectType
Starlink's massive constellation! There's almost 2100 Starlink satellites "up" already, out of a future total of something like 44,000.

3) Hubble Telescope (NORAD ID: 20580): https://platform.leolabs.space/visualizations/leo =HST;view=objectType

4) International Space Station/ISS (NORAD ID: 25544):
https://platform.leolabs.space/visualizations/leo =25544;view=objectType

5) USA's Vanguard satellite...oldest satellite in orbit (NORAD ID: 5):
https://platform.leolabs.space/visualizations/leo =L11822;view=objectType
• Launched: 03-17-1958!
• Stopped communicating in 1964.
• Launched only 6 months after Russia's Sputnik satellite, which burned up in Earth's atmosphere not long after it was launched. However, Vanguard is still orbiting.....64 years later! And, it will continue to orbit the earth for centuries in the future!
• More info: https://astronomy.com/news/2020/07/vanguard-1-earths-oldest-artificial-satellite-thats-still-in-orbit

12/23/2021

Merry Christmas everyone!

[I'd love to take credit for this; but, I found it elsewhere on facebook!]

12/23/2021

Things are about to get very fancy! The James Webb Telescope and Launch Vehicle, about to be rolled to the launch pad, for Christmas Day launch! Global astronomy gets a nice present for Christmas!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/spacx/posts/663177928203025/?__cft__[0]=AZVtMcLlLaK0toptHTCsR_aN5AXzWqC7FNXAVBXHrrWs1BbhsVH9_PYOAQ_QlONrHILq0qMBxXRz8ufNJtR7mOgzgpe_eIypAlcljt-6EGXoAhRhRXNcUXwPpJna87E66Ys0JRCcIxD3xCNpXoobPaXiCuiRLmC7sc774RpMG-4PiOsdU2ZfuHk4fQBmjt2dML8&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R

08/16/2021

We would like to announce the formal naming of our Observatory, here at Taylor University. This is in honor of Professor Emeritus Robert C. Wolfe. Taylor University has formally changed the name of the Taylor Observatory, to the:

Robert C. Wolfe Observatory, or Wolfe Observatory for short.

The Physics and Engineering Department would also like to add our own appreciation for the heart and soul for Christ, teaching, students, and learning (and astronomy in particular) that Dr. Wolfe exemplified during his life and many many years serving at Taylor University.

Please join us in expressing our deepest condolences as well for the loss of Bob's wife, Rosanne, just a few days ago. The Wolfe family has continued to bless Taylor University, and the Physics & Engineering Department in particular for many years. We are eternally grateful.

01/23/2021

Astronomy Class (PHY201) was up in the observatory this week. Student Michael shot these pics of moon with his own Canon EOS Rebel DSLR using Taylor’s telescope and T lense adapter!

Great job!