When students take the STAHR training course, they learn many important rules: never open the dome when winds are above 25 miles per hour, do not use the telescope to look at the sun, and do not swing the telescope too forcefully. But the most important rule, STAHR Treasurer Samuel M. Meyer ’13 says, is to always, always sign the logbook before leaving the observatory.

The logbooks, stacked on a shelf that holds a robotronic “Dalek” figurine (from the science-fiction television show Dr. Who), date back to 1976.

While many messages are practical (“Some idiot left the telescope at a 135 degree angle”—1984), others are more romantic (“The line of light at darkness, moving against the moon; celestial, orblike, seasoning, wearing the grooves ... But all is not lost! Those love tossed nights SUSTAIN”—1990). Beatles quotes, sketches of Bart Simpson poking his eye on a telescope, and depictions of lunar surfaces also adorn these pages.

Flipping through the books recently, Rice said he found signatures from a genuine astronomy legend—Neil deGrasse Tyson ’80—who is the director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City.

Not all the entries are equally inspiring, however.

“Duuuude! Sweet. Had a lunar eclipse party with college chicks and salsa with chips!” reads a 2008 entry.

The observatory, it seems, is full of life lessons—both about everyday experiences and the bigger picture.

“Learning about the universe gives you a sense of perspective about life and what you want out of it and what everything means,” Rice said. “I think you get that not by reading books or seeing movies, but by actually going outside and watching the stars.”

—Staff writer Julie R. Barzilay can be reached at jbarzilay13@college.harvard.edu.