UACNJ Observatory at Jenny Jump
In 1992, after searching for several years for a dark sky observing site that could be utilized by UACNJ member clubs, the UACNJ discovered Jenny Jump location in Warren County. The property, on the top of a mountain, had been a private home on 18 acres that had been annexed to Jenny Jump State Forest. The UACNJ leases the property from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. In 1995, the UACNJ completed the Greenwood Observatory, the first of seven. The house continues to be transformed into an education center and an astronomy museum. Downstairs is a 49-seat lecture room, a display room, a radio-astronomy electronics room, and a maintenance shop. The upstairs (available only to UACNJ Observers) has a large meeting room and an office-library. For those wanting to observe late into the early morning, a full kitchen, bath, and two bunk rooms to stay the night are available.

The Greenwood Observatory was dedicated in September of 1995. The 10' by 10' roll-off roof structure houses a 16-inch Newtonian telescope on permanent loan from AAI for useby all qualified UACNJ Observers, and for public programs. The foundations of five similar observatories were completed in the fall of 1996.

They will enclose instruments owned by Amateur Astronomers, Inc., Amateur Astronomers Association of Princeton, Skyland Star Gazers, and the UACNJ. One will be used as a solar observatory. A radio telescope is also under construction. Future plans include a satellite down-link dish for NASA select, and radio astronomy/ham-radio facilities which will feed directly from the antenna into the radio-astronomy room.   

In December 1996, a split-ring mounted, 16-inch Newtonian-Cassegrain telescope was donated to the UACNJ by the Montclair Telescope Club. It will remain on display in the education center until installation into one of the UACNJ's observatories. Also that month, the UACNJ received an EXXON grant for a CCD camera which will allow electronic color imaging of celestial objects. In early 1997, a 28-inch Newtonian- Cassegrain telescope was donated to the UACNJ by Mr. Ross Bloom of Basking Ridge, NJ. Plans are under way to design and build a suitable observatory for this instrument, the largest equatorially mounted telescope in New Jersey.