Stargazing at the North Georgia Astronomical Observatory

DAHLONEGA, Ga. - It’s been just more than a year since Good Day Atlanta checked out the progress being made on the new $1.4 million observatory at the University of North Georgia.

This morning, we finally got a look inside — not to mention a look at the stars through the facility’s two new telescopes.

The North Georgia Astronomical Observatory is currently open to the general public for walk-in telescope viewing on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 9 p.m. to midnight (weather permitting) and daytime hours by request.  The new 3,200-square-foot facility was approved by the University System of Georgia in January of 2019 and funded by UNG and was built on the same site as the former observatory.  

As observatory director Dr. Greg Feiden told us about the previous observatory last year, "[It] was starting to show its age. In some spots, the walls were literally crumbling, and the basement flooded, and … in that sense, the structure itself was kind of losing its integrity."  

Feiden says having two telescopes instead of one allows students and researchers better study a single object, not to mention allowing more people from the general public to use the facility at the same time. Daily updates are posted on the facility’s Facebook page, which will alert visitors to weather conditions or other issues that might affect operating hours on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays — you can check out the Facebook page here.

The North Georgia Astronomical Observatory is located at 3000 Dawsonville Highway in Dahlonega, near the UNG campus — click the video player to check out our morning exploring this new out-of-this-world addition to North Georgia!

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