Michigan State Normal School at the Columbian World's Fair

EMU’s Alvan Clark 4'' refractor telescope was purchased in 1872 for about $300. In 1878 renowned astronomer James Craig Watson lacked a telescope he could transport to Wyoming to observe a solar eclipse, so he borrowed the Normal’s Alvan Clark. On the basis of measurements made with the telescope during the eclipse, Watson announced that he had discovered two intra-mercurial planets, but these claims were soon disproved.

The Alvan Clark was installed in Old Main’s observatory dome after construction was completed in 1881. In 1893 a tornado carried the observatory dome twenty-five feet, sweeping the Alvan Clark off its pier, but the telescope was repaired. At the time of the devastating Sherzer Hall fire of 1989, the telescope fortunately was in the Physics and Astronomy offices, so it escaped destruction. The Alvan Clark telescope is currently housed in the Sherzer Observatory.