0.8 miles away
Northern Arizona University Art Museum
The Northern Arizona University Art Museum, in Flagstaff, Arizona, holds rotating exhibits of local and international art.
Lowell Observatory
The Flagstaff observatory where Pluto was discovered in 1930, founded in 1894 and still open for public observing.
- Rank in Arizona
- #28of 727 ranked
- Overall score
- Score 61.0 out of 100medium confidence
- Category
- Observatory
Lowell Observatory is an astronomical observatory in Flagstaff, established in 1894 by the Boston astronomer Percival Lowell. It is among the oldest observatories in the United States and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965. The dwarf planet Pluto was discovered here in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh. The 24-inch Clark refracting telescope, built in 1896, remains in use for public observing; astronauts observed through it in 1963 while the Moon was being mapped for the Apollo programme. The observatory is overseen by a sole trustee, a position handed down through the Lowell family since 1916, who appoints an executive director and consults an advisory board. It remains active in exoplanet and minor planet research and receives more than 150,000 visitors a year. In 2011 Time magazine named it one of the world's hundred most important places.
Where it is
Lowell Observatory is a observatory near Flagstaff, in Coconino County. It is one of the observatories in this database, and appears in the statewide ranking of Arizona attractions.
How this ranking was reached
No official visitor count is published for Lowell Observatory, so its score rests on public interest and tourism significance, and is capped below the level a measured attraction can reach. That is why the medium confidence above is not higher. The weighting is explained in full on the methodology page, and every axis is broken out under Facts and sources at the foot of this page.
Note on the data: No official visitor count is published for this attraction.
Mentioned in
- Arizona protects its night sky in one set of places and uses it in another — Eight Arizona attractions hold International Dark Sky Park status and all eight publish visitor counts; twelve working observatories publish none.
Sources
- Public interest: Wikimedia pageviews (en.wikipedia, human traffic), 2024
- Coordinates and designations: Wikidata(opens in a new tab)
- County: U.S. Census geography via FCC Area API, resolved from coordinates
- Official site: https://lowell.edu/(opens in a new tab)
Record last verified 2026-08-12.
More photographs
Louis&Clark1896, CC BY-SA 4.0 · licence(opens in a new tab) · source(opens in a new tab) 
en:User:Pretzelpaws, CC BY-SA 3.0 · licence(opens in a new tab) · source(opens in a new tab)
Nearby attractions
1.0 miles away
Riordan Mansion State Historic Park
An Arizona state park in Flagstaff preserving the duplex mansion of the lumber barons Timothy and Michael Riordan.
1.5 miles away
Pioneer Museum
Pioneer Museum, in Flagstaff, Arizona, collects and exhibits artefacts and photographs on the history of Flagstaff and northern Arizona.1.6 miles away
Coconino Center for the Arts
A Flagstaff arts museum described as the largest gallery in northern Arizona, showing local and regional artists' work.
1.7 miles away
Walkup Skydome
An 11,230-seat indoor stadium at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, home to the NAU Lumberjacks.
2.2 miles away
Museum of Northern Arizona
A Flagstaff museum founded in 1928, holding Indigenous material and natural history collections from the Colorado Plateau.
Facts and sources
Place
- Category
- Observatory
- Destination
- Flagstaff
- County
- Coconino County
- State
- Arizona
- Designations
- National Historic Landmark · National Register of Historic Places listed place
Visitation
- Annual visits
- Not published
Ranking
- Overall score
- 61.0 / 100
- Visitation score
- No published count
- Popularity score
- 53.7
- Significance score
- 67.0
- Confidence
- medium
Visiting
- Official website
- lowell.edu(opens in a new tab)
- Coordinates
- 35.2028, -111.6644
- Last verified
- 2026-08-12