I am fortunate enough to have some very good friends with children who are also organized enough to plan a tour and invite me and my family along. Last Tuesday, I was part of a planned tour at the Prince George Astronomical Observatory in the West Lake area as a TakeOn P.G. activity (#98 Map Out Cassiopeia). When my friend had called a few days previously to invite me to the tour, I had said "The Prince George what?"
Apparently, there is an observatory here. So Tuesday last, we drove from our house in the Hart for 33 minutes to the West end of town and found the observatory with little difficulty. And it was raining. I wasn't quite sure what to expect during the tour with such a diverse population and we had kids of all ages and their families. Our tour was led by Mike and assisted by volunteers Deann, Ursula and Glen and it was fabulous,
I was amazed to discover that we have here in Prince George, a big bad-ass telescope that can take great photos of the night sky. The observatory is another example of a great non-profit organization run by fantastic volunteers in our city and I am completely surprised that I had no idea it existed.
Even though it was raining, we were given a fantastic tour and we're able to practice using a few telescopes by finding objects throughout the room. We were also shown the large telescope (a 0.6 meter Cassegrain telescope according to their pamphlet) that was built by members of the community 20 years ago. I was saddened to hear that the observatory was originally built at Tabor Mountain but due to continued vandalism, it was moved to it's current location. Happily, the observatory is now housed in a quiet neighbourhood and they haven't had any problems since the move.
My husband and I have plans to attend one of their open houses (on a clear night) to look at the sky and the objects found within. I strongly encourage residents of Prince George to contact the Observatory www.pgrasc.org and have a look at the sky. Memberships are reasonable and access to the centre is by donation. Although my husband and I spent a large portion of the tour trying to wrangle our toddler and not wreck the experience for everyone else, we were made to feel welcome and all of our questions were answered well and with humour. Thank you to Mike, Deann, Ursula and Glen from the Prince George Centre at the Observatory for a great evening and we look forward to coming again.
