The Stephens observatory, located on the roof of Carnegie, houses a 12-inch Newtonian reflecting telescope, built by Roscoe G. Stephens of Kennebunk, Maine. Stephens gifted the telescope to the college in 1929.

Stephens spent two years grinding the primary mirror by hand. The telescope has an excellent optical quality.  The original placement of the telescope was in a small building where Page Hall now stands. After an addition was built onto Carnegie Science Hall, the telescope and a new dome were placed on the roof in order to view the skies without obstruction. The observatory dome is electrically driven, and the telescope has a tracking system designed and built by a senior thesis student.

There are also several portable telescopes available for student use, including an eight-inch Celestron, a six-inch Meade starfinder, and a Coronado Solarmax II 60. In addition, the astronomy lab provides eight three-inch reflecting scopes with accessory photometers. For more information about the telescopes, please contact Cole Hastings (nhasting@bates.edu).