Allegheny Observatory — Attraction in Pittsburgh

My tour was on 5/19/2016. Respectfully said... they should call this a lecture instead of a tour. Ironically, this tour gets 1 star for the actual star gazing and 5 stars for overly detailed history / story telling. Don't get me wrong, I totally respect the passion that the presenter has for the history and details. That being said... I am pretty sure that most people who considering this activity are thinking that they will spend most of their time looking through a telescope or (at least) viewing images of awesome things in the universe. The reality is that if your tour is like mine (and it is a perfectly clear starry night) you will spend less than 1/2 of 1% of the time actually looking through a telescope (or at star images of any kind). The presenter should consider NOT doing a 2 hour monologue and limiting his speaking time to an hour or less and the rest of the time being a much more interactive type of tour. The speaker seemed VERY knowledgeable in reference to astronomy and history but focused much of his time talking about the historical stories. As a result, people that LOVE history will (most likely) love his presentation. I kept wondering if the speaker was actually also a history professor. If you are not that into extremely detailed historical presentations and just want to see some stars, then you will have to wait through about 2 hours of (pretty much) monologue to get to less than about 1 minute looking through an actual telescope. I do want to say that I was not the only one on the tour with these thoughts. A few others said similar things to what I am saying in this review while others did a lot of eye rolling, etc. Near the end of the tour, another person on the tour told me that they felt trapped and I sincerely agreed because there is no obvious exit and no discrete way to exit from the observatory type of structure if you get bored and want to politely exit. The website for this describes a tour, and you do get a tour, but the majority or the experience is a historical lecture. Again, said as respectfully as possible, they should just call it a lecture. I am astounded that the other reviews are good for this. I can only guess that either they A.) had a bad night for viewing stars, so they did not miss the star viewing. B.) Got a different guide / presenter or they C.) LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, history and did not care much about actually looking through...

Awesome 120 year old observatory! Standard U.S. time zones set here. 40 percent of the distances of the stars in the universe calculated here. There is a blue information sign across from the welcome center cabin that gives some of these historical details about the observatory. University of Pittsburgh owns the building. The surrounding land, Riverview park is Pittsburgh/Allegheny County. One of unique Pittsburgh historical places that files below the radar. The surrounding park is very nice. A great place for a walk. Unless you know the history here the building although great old construction doesn't scream super cool! It has three viewing domes housing the telescopes. Again, cool old place if you are looking for an off the beaten path adventure full of U.S and Pittsburgh history. There is also a great documentary on it called Undaunted: The Forgotten Giants of the Allegheny Observatory. It gives a detailed history of it. I know it was available on Prime and possibly other streaming services but I can't...

Great old piece of history. It’s part of Riverview park which is expansive with nice trails. We did not find any public bathrooms, but that was only negative. They have cut dog park up top by observatory with water and is fenced off. The building is beautiful and although has its blemishes, you can still appreciate its old glory. Lots of history even in its short time in use. There is plenty of parking at the top and at the bottom. Take the time to see the building and enjoy the trails surrounding it as well. It’s in a nice quiet spot away from all the noise and traffic. So glad...