$1 including gst
Your LOCAL Media since 1918! Volume 107 Issue 03
www.tofieldmerc.com
Holden ATB Closing - Inside! Wednesday, September 11, 2024
Open House at Black Nugget Lake Observatory
PHOTO SUPPLIED The Black Nugget Lake Observatory held a one-year anniversary open house on Thursday, September 5. The project began 20 years ago and the facility first opened on September 16, 2023. The 32-inch Unyk-Drew telescope weighs 3,200 pounds. Kari Janzen Staff Reporter
The Black Nugget Lake Observatory held a one-year anniversary open house on Thursday, September 5, and Dr. Warren Finlay, member of the Edmonton Centre Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC), said about 30 people registered to attend. The project began two decades ago, though funding had been an issue throughout, delaying the process. “It takes a long time when you're doing everything on a shoestring budget and volunteers,” Finlay said. Finlay was interested in astronomy as a child, and in the 1990s became more serious, purchasing his own 12.5-inch telescope, and first began thinking about the
observatory project. “I thought the club should have a site like this, so I started out on my own, mentioning to the club now and then what I was doing, and then stumbled on this site. I took it forward to the RASC and got the Edmonton Centre on board in 2004,” he said. Finding a location in east central Alberta took some work, and Finlay said he visited about 20 sites. “I began looking in about 2003, consulting satellite maps of the world light pollution, which measure the amount of light coming up. I discovered this particular location after having scouted many dark sites in east central Alberta. You can look on these maps to determine probably how dark a site will be, but you don't actually know until you’re on the site,” he said.
Located right across from the Coal Creek Golf Course, secluded by trees, there is no artificial light interfering with viewing the night sky through the telescope. “Of course, we don't have money to buy land, we're a volunteer organization, so the site needed to be on public land, which really limits things. This is actually provincial land but the Alberta government has a long-term lease to Beaver County. We had to get both Alberta government and Beaver County approvals to do this. In 2007 we got the first 10-year use approval, which was renewed in 2017,” he said. Working with the county and applying for numerous grants, a space was cleared, gravel spread, power Continued on Page 9