The round white building stands out perched on a Saanich hillside.
Saturday night star parties are a 105-year-old tradition at the Centre of the Universe – the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory that is a national historic site and home to the Plaskett Telescope.
In the 1930s, tens of thousands came to visit the “big telescope on the hill,” said Ben Doman, a director with the Friends of the Dominion Astorphysical Observatory. “The first star party was June 11, 1918 and the director of the observatory J.S. Plaskett, he was keen on outreach and it was a major activity here.”
Star parties have only been interrupted twice – two years each – during the Second World War and the COVID pandemic.
“We think we can restore that general sense with the right initiatives and we’re working hard to make that happen,” Dorman said.
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It’s why he’s a little disheartened to hear every year, while hosting a table at the Saanich Fair, that people think the observatory is closed.
That was briefly true in the wake of 2013 federal cutbacks, when the Friends of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory Society was created specifically to reopen the Centre of the Universe visitors centre next to the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory atop Little Saanich Mountain. The closure left school groups without access to the observatory, and the public limited to a handful of special events.
“We’ve grown from an organization that was a small number of people with some hopes, to a group that is making some real change in education,” Dorman said.
Part of the National Research Council of Canada, the observatory is on federal land with a no-cost lease, but relies on grants, donations and fundraisers. Some grant requests were not achieved last year.
“There’s a big hole in our budget that are trying to fill,” Dorman said. “We need to raise money to keep this education program going, as well as other activities.”
This year, the society is measuring its fundraising in trips around Pluto, a fun little equivalent vice chair Amy Archer came up. “Like to get more than one orbit but happy to receive anything people are prepared to give us,” Dorman said. “Three or four orbits of Pluto would do nicely.”
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The centre supports just over one full-time staff position augmented by several volunteers - many of them enthusiastic, retired science teachers. Over the years they’ve created online materials and programs to connect young people with scientists to create science projects. Schools make the centre and observatory a part of their curriculum.
“One of the main goals is to fund our school programs. We’re in this situation where we are attempting to serve some needs in the community. Specifically, we support science education directly by having school tours that fill the astronomy/physics part of the curriculum,” Dorman said.
“We are trying to fund those and allow them to be reasonably priced for the school community.”