Rainwater Observatory and Planetarium

Rainwater Observatory and Planetarium is an educational astronomical observatory and Planetarium run as an educational ministry of French Camp Academy. It is located near French Camp, Mississippi, United States. It is the largest observatory in Mississippi with 16+ telescopes, with the largest instruments including a 32-inch Dobsonian telescope and 14-inch Celestron catadioptric telescope. Rainwater is currently awaiting delivery of the Sollee Telescope, a 25-inch research-grade telescope. When installed in the two-story observatory building already constructed in the observatory complex, the Sollee Telescope will be suitable for serious astronomical studies, in the last remaining "dark spot" in Mississippi on the U.S. Dark Skies photograph. Rainwater Observatory and Planetarium is the site for the annual Midsouth Star Gaze. This gathering of amateur astronomers is held in late March or early April each year on the weekend closest to New Moon (to allow for the maximum night-time observing for deep-sky objects such as galaxies and nebulae). The planetarium/activities complex includes one main building with a 30-foot dome and Spitz planetarium projector, combined with a computer/activities room. A meeting room and exhibition space building next door includes dormitory space and male/female group bathrooms with showers. Up the hill from the activity buildings is the cluster of

Observatory data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).