For the second time this summer, the Elginfield Observatory is opening its doors to offer stargazers a rare look at the stars on Saturday, Aug. 21.
The Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Centre for Planetary Science and Exploration offer a free open house at its Elginfield Observatory, which is traditionally used as a research facility.
The event at Elginfield, located just 25km north of London, is scheduled to run from 6 p.m. to midnight (rain or shine) and will include telescope viewing, hands-on activities, demonstrations and mirror making workshops.
Observatory tours and sessions will be conducted by graduate students from Western’s Department of Physics & Astronomy, as well as volunteers from the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada and Let’s Talk Science.
The 1.2-metre working research telescope used for the viewings was installed by American manufacturer Boller and Chivens in 1969. Boller and Chivens, since purchased by PerkinElmer, most famously supplied a telescope to the Harvard-Smithsonian Oak Ridge Observatory in Harvard, Massachusetts in the 1960s. That same telescope is now available for public use at the National Air and Space Museum on the National Mall in Washington, DC.
Visit Elginfield Observatory for more information and directions.