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For years I have walked past, driven near and photographed the view towards Longs Peak beyond the Estes Park Memorial Observatory. I had not, however, stopped to experience what it is like to see stars, nebulas and planets through their large telescope.
After writing about the observatory for my upcoming book about things to do in Estes Park, I thought it was time.
Now the challenge with night activities, including capturing images of the night sky, requires a sky free of clouds. You also cannot have a full or near full moon as the light reflected off the moon washes out the stars and other objects in space.
On October 2, I received a call from Mike Connolly, the founder and director of the observatory.
“Were you planning on coming tonight for the program at the observatory,” I heard Connolly ask on the other end of the phone.
“No, not tonight,” I replied. “I am scheduled for October 16.”
“Oh good,” said Connolly. “It is pretty cloudy tonight and there is a good chance we may cancel.”
For anyone who looks at the night sky, you know the challenges of getting the conditions just right. As a photographer who goes out to capture images of the Milky Way, meteors and starry skies, I know the frustration that can arise when you watch a forecast, see favorable conditions, and then get skunked at the last minute when the weather changes and clouds – even the slightest cirrus clouds – roll across the sky, blocking your view of the celestial objects above.
When October 16 rolled around, I kept my fingers crossed as I pulled up my weather app a few hours before the start of the program. The forecast showed favorable conditions all day with cold temps, a waning gibbous moon at 60 percent that didn’t rise until 11 p.m. and only a 6 percent chance of clouds. Conditions were perfect for my scheduled night at the observatory.
I grabbed a few warm pieces of clothing – winter jacket, heavy socks, gloves (I later regretted leaving the knit cap behind) – and headed over to the observatory.
The parking lot was dark, with only a few red lights illuminated on the outside of the building. Other cars were arriving. We gathered inside and right away a friendly smile greeted us with mugs for coffee and hot chocolate.
Connolly runs the observatory and is currently the only volunteer managing the nightly programs. A former aerospace engineer, Connolly radiates his enthusiasm for astronomy and the observatory he built to share his passion for science with the Estes Park community.
But it wasn’t just Estes Park residents at the event. Of the twelve attendees, a few drove up from Denver, a couple were from Ohio and a few others were from Texas.
Connolly opened the evening by giving some background about the history of the observatory.
After a rough start to college due to poor grades in high school, Connolly buckled down and strengthened his grades to graduate from Colorado State University with a degree in mechanical engineering. Right out of college in the 1960s, he started working for Martin Marietta (now Lockheed Martin) on the Titan Missile as a thermal engineer. Since then, he has also worked on the Apollo Mission and the Magellan, a spacecraft created to take radar images of Venus.
He instilled in his kids this love for space by taking them out on astronomy adventures.
“I remember nights where we would all lay under the sky looking at stars and planets for hours,” said Connolly in a 2013 interview with YouTuber Carri Wilbanks. “I love the stars and I loved showing them to my kids.”
But in 2005, Connolly and his family suffered a terrible blow when two of his children – son Thomas and daughter Christian – died in a motorcycle accident.
“My wife, Carole, and daughter, Michele, wanted to honor their lives,” said Connolly to the group of 12 inside the observatory. “We used their life insurance money to build this observatory so others could learn about and enjoy the stars as much as we did.”
The observatory, completed in 2009, now features a top-of-the-line Paramount ME II robotic mount installed in 2014 and a 16-inch Ritchey-Chretien telescope, both synchronized through software to allow rapid and precise pointing to celestial objects.
After showing the group a couple of videos, including one about Estes Park fifth graders speaking with astronauts on the International Space Station, Connolly turned off the overhead lights and turned on the black lights. The front wall glowed with orange, pink, green and blue dots.
“Have you ever been to a planetarium with those seats you can sleep in and watch the stars?” asked Connolly. “This is our low-budget version of that 3D solar system.”
The crowed giggled.
After Connolly pointed out the path the sun takes, what each dot represents and where to find the different astrological constellations, he led the group upstairs to the dome that houses the telescope.
He passed out blankets – they were surprisingly a nice touch to help keep us warm – as he opened the 16-foot dome housing the telescope that can see 400 million miles into space.
As the doors creaked open and the dome rotated with a heavy dragging sound, Connolly mentioned that the dome uses a motorcycle chain to open the doors. A rush of cold air filled the small space that can only hold about 12 people plus our host.
One by one, the attendees had an opportunity to look through the telescope eyepiece to see the different features Connolly had selected for us that night: a ring nebula, double star Albireo, Saturn and its rings, Jupiter, the Andromeda galaxy and a great globular cluster in Hercules.
“I want to show you my favorite thing in the night sky,” said Connolly. “This is a double cluster in Perseus. It’s like a field shot with diamond dust.”
You could hear each person mutter the same sound as they looked through the scope: “wow, look at all those stars!”
“Think of it, half a million stars in that cluster [great globular cluster] and that is just one dot in our night sky,” said Connolly. “Do you want to see one more?”
There was an enthusiastic “yes” from the group.
“This is the E.T. cluster,” said Connolly.
Sure enough, you could make out the two eyes, an outline of a large head and a long, lanky body.
The observatory hosts groups of stargazers (up to 12) on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday nights through November, weather permitting and excluding the nights on or near a full moon. Programs will start back up again in spring 2023. The program is free but donations are encouraged. Reservations can be made online at https://www.angelsabove.org/observatory-schedule/.
Dawn Wilson is a professional and award-winning nature photographer and writer who lives in Estes Park year-round. You can see more of her work, join one of her Rocky tours, purchase prints and calendars, or suggest future topics at DawnWilsonPhotography.com.
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