Local amateur astronomers brought the galaxy to families in Ottawa celebrating International Astronomy Day. Hosted by The Ottawa Valley Astronomy and Observers Group (OAOG) and the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC), the event gave the public opportunities to learn about the stars and planets. “It’s assumed that most people haven’t had a chance to look through an actual telescope. We all have a passion for astronomy as our hobby and we’re trying to share that passion with people by giving them a view through our telescope,” said Jim Thompson, coordinator of International Astronomy Day in Ottawa. Many telescopes of many different sizes and types were on display in the City Park Drive Chapters parking lot to enjoy safe solar observing with live video-imaging. “It’s a more hands on experience with all these telescopes. It’s going to help them get more engaged in topics like this,” said Tarek Kilani, who was attending Astronomy Day. The public got a chance to see the sun, the moon, the planets, galaxies and star clusters. “Space is huge. It’s something to learn more about. Open their knowledge and get to know more. I like this event. It helps the kids even at a junior level, get more knowledge about it,” said Kilani. Samuel Bouwmeester says he’s into astronomy and would like to go to the moon someday. “I’ve never looked into a telescope before and it looked cool,” said Bouwmeester. “It was his dream to see it and now he got to see it. We’re excited. He really wanted to come. He got me interested, so we got to come,” said Bouwmeester’s mother, Genevieve Lapointe. With the recent Artemis II mission, space is sparking more curiosity. “That’s totally a coincidence that it just happens to be Astronomy Day right after this huge event where a Canadian went around the moon. That’s pretty cool. It really inspired a lot of people to get into not just astronomy as a hobby, but just an interest in science,” said Thompson. “If we can get young people more interested in science and technology, I think that’s generally a good idea for our society”. The free family event runs until 10 p.m. at the Silver City Gloucester parking lot for the public to get a night view.
