Achi news desk-
More than 100 years after the city welcomed its first observatory, in 1854, people continue to flock down to the facility to learn more about the starry night sky.
The current observatory is in Ellis Hall at Queen’s University in Kingston.
In the 1800s, an observatory was located in City Park. But there are no pictures to prove that an observatory actually stood there. Instead a plaque from the Ontario Heritage Foundation is the only evidence of Kingston’s astronomical beginnings.
“People have looked and couldn’t find any,” said Bernard Ziomkiewiez, a retired university staff member who was responsible for maintaining the current facility.
A map inside the lobby of Sterling Hall on campus shows where the original observatory used to be. There are artefacts from the original site, including telescopes, one which operated with a clockwork mechanism to rotate against the earth’s axis, keeping things in focus for the user.
Ziomkiewiez said the original observatory site moved from City Park to the university in the early 1900s. It stood there until it was torn down to make way for a building. Another observatory built by Nathan Dupuis met the same fate in the 1940s. The current observatory was built in the 1960s.
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“That observatory is used for some student laboratories (and) for outreach. A lot of visiting groups come by,” Ziomkiewiez said. “Every month there is an open house for the general public, where people will come and… hear a talk about astronomy.”
A rotating dome and automatic telescope form the observatory in Ellis Hall. The public is invited to open houses on the Saturday of each month when they can look through the telescope.
Lawrence Faria, a student at the university and one of the coordinators of the observatory, said that the feedback received from these open houses has been great. As someone who studies the field, he noted that being part of the observatory was a fruitful experience.
“I think everyone would agree that we as astronomers have the coolest jobs. Everyone wishes they could spend all night looking up at the stars. And that’s basically what we get to do,” he said. “It’s a very magical thing to peel back the fabric of the universe and see the answers that are there.”
& copy 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
