The South Cariboo Astronomy Club invites anyone fascinated with the night sky to come out to its first meeting on May 17.
There is no cost to attend the meet and greet which will be held at the Cariboo Regional District Library 100 Mile Branch from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. and will offer instruction on viewing the night sky using the naked eye, binoculars and telescopes.
Founder Steve Coleopy created the club as a Facebook page after moving to the Cariboo from Vancouver, where he was a member of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. Coleopy said the next nearest club is in Prince George.
“Just in chatting with a few people as we got to know people and that kind of thing, it sounded like there was interest in it,” Coleopy said. “I think we’ve been a group now for probably about the last four years. We’ve gone from three, four or five members. We’re now up over 100.
“I tried doing a meeting before COVID-19 hit and nobody showed but our membership was still quite low.”
Coleopy said he has no idea how many people are going to attend the meeting but he is hopeful some students from Peter Skene Ogden show up as a poster was delivered to the school.
He hopes to set up some observing sessions down the road and get people out to look through the telescope but the idea of the first meeting is to give people an idea of where to start when it comes to watching the sky, pointing out that it is not necessary to have a telescope.
Constellations, meteor showers, the aurora, the moon, visible comets – these are all things that can be seen in the night sky with the naked eye.
A step up from this is what can be seen with a pair of ordinary binoculars, then a telescope and finally, how to use a camera with any of these visual aids. Coleopy said a person does not need to spend a lot of money to get started. The first telescope he bought as a kid was secondhand and he used it right up to his 20s.
For those just getting started, learning the night sky is important, he said. Understanding the locations of constellations and planets at various times during the night is a good place to start.
Coleopy encourages those who want some hands-on advice to come to the club meeting.
“I’m no expert at astronomy and don’t ever profess to be but certainly, any knowledge I do have I’m willing to pass on.”
