Telescope Reviews: My little-noticed observatory visit.

A post by a Victoria, BC-based user reminded me of one of my most intimate observatory visit. In 1997 my girlfriend (now my wife) were touring Vancouver Island (my first of only two trips there), and I realized that we were not far away from Dominion Observatory, which is near Saanich, which I knew housed a 72 inch reflector which had been the world's largest until the 100 inch Hooker telescope on Mount Wilson, but I had not even thought about it while preparing our trip. So one day we board a bus (I did not have a driver's license then) and ask if it's the right one to get there; the driver tells us in alarm that there's still a three mile walk to the observatory. He looked even more alarmed when we told him we were aware there was a three mile trek left and intended to walk it.

It was more like a five mile walk as I took the wrong road after the bus stop, under a sun which was getting slightly less pleasant by the hour. We had the heartbreak hill at the foot of the hill - see, they had placed that observatory on top of a hill! So we huff and puff our way up the hill to find a couple white domes, and a few buildings which all looked close and very quiet (it was 5 PM so I was expecting a few astronomers to be up). No visitor information centre or welcome area which you come to expect about anywhere in Canada. We were unexpected, to say the least.

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Matt
CI700 mount with various scopes on top.

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