Pulpit Rock

Pulpit Rock near Hamburg, PA is home to 5 private observatories for members of LVAAS to use at their leisure. It also has paved slabs for members to set up their scopes. At an altitude of 1584ft and under Bortle 4 skies, Pulpit Rock is the highest and finest amateur observing site east of the Mississippi. The location also features a beautiful lookout where on clear days, mountain tops as far as New Jersey can be seen.


Kawecki Observatory

This observatory is the only one owned but not built by LVAAS. It was built by Henry Kawecki in the 1950s.

McHugh Observatory

This was the first major project after the opening of South Mountain in 1963. It took 7 years to complete this observatory.

Spacek Observatory

The Spacek observatory used to house a 12'' reflector donated by Randy Warden but built by Michael Spacek.

Andrews Observatory

The Andrews Observatory is the smallest observatory but holds one of the widest scopes LVAAS owns. 

8'' Refractor

The 8'' refractor is LVAAS' largest operational refractor telescope with a 3048mm focal length at F15. There is a great scope for most celestial objects and the oldest at Pulpit.

18'' Tinsley Cassegrain

This scope is LVAAS' largest operational scope with a 6400mm focal length at F14. It was donated by Kutztown University and is powered by a Raspberry Pi for different tracking rates.

12'' Meade LX200 SCT

This fully motorized scope provides stellar optics with its 3048mm focal length at F10 as well as ease of use with full Go-To capabilities via an external computer running Stellarium.

17.5'' Dobsonian 

The 17.5'' Dobsonian is a unique scope as encoders were added to make it a push-to-scope for easier observations. With a 2000mm focal length at F4.5, it is also one of the highest light-gathering scopes here at Pulpit. 

Schlegel Observatory

The Schlegal Observatory was built specially to house a 40'' Dobsonian telescope that would be hand-built by LVAAS members. Ground broke on this project in the mid 1990's.

The building was specifically constructed to house this scope and features 3 floors, The observing floor, a ground-level storage floor with a bathroom, and a basement storage area. LVAAS has been working on this project for the last 30 years.

While the scope is mostly constructed, the scope remains unassembled as certain parts still require work such as painting and powder coating. When completed, it will be the largest scope LVAAS owns with a 40'' aperture and 13,996mm focal length at F13.84.

For more information on the specs of this scope, see February 2020's edition of The Observer