Stargaze Free on a Boston University Rooftop Every Wednesday
Open Nights since 1967: free rooftop telescope viewing, weather permitting, with a ticket drop that clears in minutes.
🌙 The Rules Before the Moon
The Coit Observatory sits on the roof of BU's College of Arts and Sciences, 725 Commonwealth Avenue. Take the Green Line B to Boston University Central, about two minutes from the door. The stairwell is on the fifth floor, left of room 520, and the observatory is reachable only by stairs. Up top, Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes and binoculars point at the moon, planets, stars and constellations, and admission is free.
Start times are 7:30 pm from October through March and 8:30 pm from April through September, with no admittance once the program begins. Free tickets, five per person, go up by hand on Thursdays around 11 am for the following Wednesday, and they usually clear within minutes. Log into Eventbrite before the drop.
Weather decides whether the night opens. Clouds, haze, rain, extreme cold or wind can cancel it, and the call comes on the day. Check mastodon.social/@buobservatory or call 617-353-2630 within two hours of the start. Without a ticket, arrive early and wait, ticket holders go in first, then everyone else until capacity, and admittance is not guaranteed. Unaccompanied minors are not admitted.
