North Frontenac Observatory officially welcomed to Dark Sky Preserve

Craig Bakay | Aug 18, 2021

It took several years to get to this point, but on Saturday evening, the 16” Fred Lossing Telescope officially became part of North Frontenac’s Dark Sky Preserve.

About 50 people were present for the official ribbon cutting (many of whom left after the cutting and a piece of Michelle Ross’s cake) but observers kept trickling in once the sky got dark.

“It actually got started in 2002 when we got some gas tax money that had to be used for eco-tourism,” said former Coun. and economical development task force member Betty Hunter. “This is it.”

After the Township received Dark Sky Preserve designation in 2012-2013 and the Sky Pad was installed (along with an arrangement with the air ambulance people to replace the green lighting with orange lights that are turned on only when a helicopter is approaching), Ottawa Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada offered to donate the 16” Fred Lossing Telescope to the facility on the stipulation that an observatory be built to house it.

“The telescope is 50 years old,” said Stephen Nourse, president of the Ottawa Centre. “We got an opportunity to upgrade to an 18” but this old girl still has a lot of life in her.

“This is the spot for her.”

Hunter, along with resident amateur astronomers Gary Colwell and Guy Nason were instrumental in securing funding and actually getting the observatory built.

“We did have a Gofundme account that raised $3,649 and got some money from the Township but that barely paid for the materials,” Hunter said. “The actual construction fell to Gary and (Coun.) John Inglis.”

“John has the workshop of my dreams,” Colwell said.

“Were you going to mention that we first mounted the base backwards?” said Inglis.

“No, I wasn’t,” said Colwell. “But we finally got it sorted out.”

For Colwell, who’s been doing astronomy as a hobby for 56 years, Saturday night was especially fulfilling.

“I came up here when I found out how dark it was,” he said. “I bought a lot and had an observatory on it before I had a house here.”

He said that as far as he’s been able to determine, this is the only Dark Sky Preserve in Canada, perhaps even the world, that has its own observatory.

“This telescope has a lot of history,” he said. “A lot of eyegasms.

“You can actually see structure in the cloud bands of Jupiter with it.”

For the record, the first object observed with the new telescope was M13, the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules. (The first member of the public to get to look at it was Dave Watson of Ompah. The second was your faithful reporter, who has a bit of a passion for astronomical things.)

Saturday was a beautiful night for skywatching.

“I ordered the weather,” said Mayor Ron Higgins. “This will cost us a week of really cold weather in December.”

Higgins also noted that North Frontenac is the only municipality in the world with its own Dark Sky Preserve as most are located in parks.

“I keep hearing of people coming up here and having to sleep in their cars,” Higgins said. “We may have to look at a camping park somewhere close.”

He may have to indeed.

The observation pad on this night was reserved for people doing astro-imaging, including one portable 16” system. Several astro-imagers on the pad said the area is enjoying an increasing reputation among those who like to take pictures of stars because of the dark skies yielding excellent results due to its rating of 2 on the Bortle Scale (1 on the scale is the middle of the Pacific Ocean. 10 is downtown Toronto).

The skies are so dark that the Milky Way actually casts shadows on the ground.