The George R. Wallace Jr. Astrophysical Observatory is a teaching and research observatory located in Westford, Massachusetts. Its observing facilities consist of a 24-inch telescope, a 16-inch telescope, several 14- and 8-inch telescopes, a 5.5-inch astrograph. There is also a small building that houses a workshop, darkroom, computer facility (linked to the main campus via a high-speed fiber optic cable connected to a microwave relay station), and observers' quarters. Instruments include the ``SNAPSHOT'' high-speed dual-CCD photometer, several small CCD systems (a Photometrics Star 1 and two Spectrasource Lynxx systems), conventional photometers, photographic cameras, and a spectrograph.
Wallace is used primarily as a teaching facility, with a modest research program carried out by MIT faculty, staff, and students. Current projects include observations of Pluto and astrometric searches for stars that may be occulted by Pluto, Neptune's satellite Triton, and the asteroid Chiron; astrometric and photometric observations in support of the Hubble Space Telescope; and observations of the rotational lightcurves of asteroids.
