Keep your fingers crossed for clear skies Wednesday night, because UW-Madison’s Washburn observatory will be open for public stargazing for the first time in nearly two years.

The iconic observatory, perched on a hill overlooking Lake Mendota in the center of the UW-Madison campus, will resume free public viewing beginning March 2. It will be open every Wednesday evening in March between 7:30 and 9:30 p.m., weather permitting, UW-Madison News reported.

Some repairs and a recent cleaning and recalibration of the observatory's 15.6-inch refracting telescope has the observatory in its best condition in many years, said Jim Lattis of UW-Madison's Astronomy Department. "It's probably working better now than it did in the 19th century. It's a beautiful instrument in many different ways."

The observatory will be open 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. every Wednesday in March, then revert to its typical public viewing schedule of the first and third Wednesdays of each month.

Washburn closed unexpectedly in April 2014 when a motor and gear box that operate a sliding door on the dome of the observatory malfunctioned. Fixing the system required the design and machining of a new mechanism for raising the door, Lattis said.