Wilder Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned by Amherst College. It is located on Snell Street in Amherst, Massachusetts, and was designed by the architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White. It was renovated in 2001, along with the telescope. The Amherst Area Amateur Astronomers Association offers observing nights at the Observatory. When the Wilder Observatory was built in 1903, the telescope was one of the largest telescopes in the world at 18 inches, and it remains one of the largest refractors. Built by Alvan Clark & Sons, the instrument was shipped to Chile in the summer of 1907 to observe the planet Mars, which allowing for some then state-of-the-art pictures of the red planet to be taken, the telescope was then returned to its observatory.—Wikipedia
