Harvard College Observatory

Harvard College Observatory

Harvard College Observatory, circa 1899
Alternative names	HCO
Organization	Harvard University
Observatory code	802
Location	Cambridge, Massachusetts, US
Coordinates	42°22′53″N 71°07′42″W / 42.3815°N 71.1284°W / 42.3815; -71.1284
Altitude	24 m (79 ft)
Established	1839
Website	www.cfa.harvard.edu/hco
Telescopes	Harvard Great Refractor
Location of Harvard College Observatory
Related media on Commons
[edit on Wikidata]

The Harvard College Observatory (HCO) is an institution managing a complex of buildings and multiple instruments used for astronomical research by the Harvard University Department of Astronomy. It is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, and was founded in 1839. With the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, it forms part of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian.

HCO houses a collection of approximately 500,000 astronomical plates taken between the mid-1880s and 1989 (with a gap from 1953–1968).^[1] This 100-year coverage is a unique resource for studying temporal variations in the universe. The Digital Access to a Sky Century @ Harvard project is digitally scanning and archiving these photographic plates.^[2]