Today, music and stargazing still go hand in hand.

“The Planets Suite by Gustav Holst is still up there today,” Rice said. “But we also recently brought a copy of Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon.’”

MORE THAN JUST STARGAZING

Because the University has since acquired several state-of-the-art, computerized telescopes, the Michael Telescope serves as a tool for amateur stargazing.

“The delightful thing about the Loomis-Michael telescope is that you have to use it by hand and really understand firsthand what is needed to find your way around the sky,” said Astronomy Professor Jonathan E. Grindlay, who advises STAHR.

Over the past year, STAHR trained over 200 students to use the telescope, Rice said. In addition, STAHR recently hosted celestial poetry readings in conjunction with The Gamut—a Harvard poetry magazine—and a mooncakes festival with the Chinese Students Association.

Students also use the deck for their own undertakings.

Allyson M. Freedy ’14 took advantage of the “stunning” view from the outside deck to take freshman formal photos with her date last weekend. Due to the combination of high heels and an accumulated two feet of snow on the deck, her date had to carry her in most of the shots, she said.

Peer Advising Fellows Todd G. Venook ’13, Sophie L. Angelis ’13, and Alex L. Sopko ’12 led their advisees to the roof for a study break this fall, complete with hot chocolate, cookies, and Angelis’ guitar.

“I think it’s representative of something about Harvard that anybody can be granted access to both the observatory and the roof with only a two hour class,” Venook said, as he recalled sitting on the rooftop in the September air while his advisees sang along to “Wagon Wheel” by Old Crow Medicine Show.

Several students alluded to something spiritual about sitting ten stories high and gazing at the silhouettes of Annenberg and Memorial Church in the twilight.

“We went up there and prayed to the housing gods that we’d get into Adams,” Ryan E. Heffrin ’13 said, referring to housing day last year. “It definitely worked.”

Grindlay remembers seeing a space shuttle blazing across the Boston sky and the rare Transit of Venus in 2004 from the rooftop.

“It was visible in Cambridge at 6:30 in the morning, and the Science Center was literally packed with people,” Grindlay said. “Through the telescope filter you could see this black block crawling across the surface of the sun—it was something you only get to see once in a lifetime.”

WRITTEN IN THE STARS