On the forested heights of beautiful Mount Laguna sits the Mount Laguna Observatory, a research base that is visited by students every semester.

Less than an hour’s drive from San Diego State near the Cleveland National Forest, this observatory serves the research needs of SDSU faculty and graduate students alike. The observatory houses four telescopes in all — the largest one 50 inches wide.

In addition to research, one of the observatory’s two main telescopes is used to give astronomy students a firsthand view of the celestial phenomena they studied in class.

Thirteen astronomy lab sections make the climb up the mountain every semester to complete their observational projects. However, what is seen is at the mercy of the weather and the phases of the moon. Once they drive up the tiny parking area on the mountain, students and their guests traverse a short path through the tall trees in the waning light up to the observatory. The first stars are visible soon after sunset, and by the time the main telescope is set up the sky is packed with stars. As students wait their turn to view the stars or nebulae through the main telescope, they are able to look at the moon or planets through a standard telescope.

“Overall I think it’s a great experience for the students themselves,” astronomy graduate student M.J. Jeffries said. “You know there’s really no other class on campus where you can actually go and come up to an actual working science research base observatory like this.”

Away from the lights of the city, Jeffries is able to show his students a lot more of the night sky than what can be seen from campus. Entire patterns of stars such as the Little Dipper that can’t be seen in the city are visible in the darkness of the mountain.

“It’s surreal to think you can actually have these views in San Diego,” Spanish senior Isabel Cortes said.

The spectacle of the night sky on Mount Laguna is a unique and exciting experience for the lab students.

“The 45-minute drive up here was definitely worth it because we got to see the moon with the little telescope,” political science and Spanish junior Anahi Urrea said. “We could see it really clearly and the moon is really bright tonight; it’s gorgeous.”

The trip to Mount Laguna Observatory is made available by SDSU, and the lab is open to any major.