SUNRIVER, Oregon — Perfectly situated amid a sprawling plateau of sagebrush, ponderosa pine and juniper in the High Desert of central Oregon, the Sunriver Observatory and Nature Center offers exceptional viewpoints to observe all the wonders of the heavens.
During a recent visit, I was invited to join Observatory Manager Paul Poncy and guests for a grand tour of the facility, which claims to offer the largest collection of publicly available telescopes in the United States and is designated by NASA as a International Dark Sky Site.
Upon arrival, Paul Poncy greeted me at the crimson-lit check-in podium next to the parking lot where I and a few dozen visitors were sheltered from the cool December weather. They were all presented with a glowing red plastic strip to attach to their wrists, parkas or shoelaces to aid in nighttime navigation and were soon directed along a trail that led past the closed Nature Center.
Staff Specialist Bradley McLain gave a pre-show talk inside a meeting room where nearly 50 people, some coughing and sneezing with mild winter colds, watched a slide presentation explaining the basic nature and types of galaxies accompanied by some stunning galactic photographs captured by the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes.
After the 25-minute briefing, we all marched back outside guided by the collective glow of red bracelets and entered the main observatory with its central main telescope and two side rooms with sliding roofs illuminated around the perimeter with red lamps. In each of the observation areas exposed to the sky, half a dozen large white telescopes had previously been installed, with ladders to reach the eyepieces already focused on a planet or galaxy.
Built in 1991 by Larry Pratt, Sunriver Observatory was led by local astronomy legend and NASA Solar System Ambassador Bob Grossfeld for more than three decades. Under Grossfeld’s careful direction, this humble little observatory was eventually named the first International Dark Sky Site in Oregon in 2020.
Solar observing is also an eye-opening daytime activity the center offers, and staff recently upgraded their main solar telescope in November by installing a new Lunt Calcium K module to observe different layers of the sun and solar activity on the surface in much greater detail using this filter.
“The main telescope in the original dome is a Ritchey-Chretien with a 20-inch aperture, and it is a very flexible telescope,” Observatory deputy director Alex Yeager told Space.com. “It can zoom out pretty well, even though it’s a very long focal length telescope, so it can range from doing things like the Orion Nebula to doing Saturn.
“Tonight we got to see a few different types of nebulae, like a planetary nebula called the Ring Nebula, then we saw a supernova remnant called the Veil Nebula, the Witch’s Broom part, and then we saw a star-forming region in the Orion Nebula. And the Geminid meteor shower was surprisingly big, and they’re fun because they’re rocky and they burn for a long time.”
In near-total darkness, bathed in red lamps like submariners during a torpedo attack, it’s a bit tricky to find the right eyepiece on each of these intricate devices. More than a few newbies looked at the telescope incorrectly and were a little confused why they couldn’t see anything, until one of the student volunteers wearing illuminated name tags corrected us. Yes, I admit it. I was one of those poor souls desperately looking in the wrong place!
The experience was framed by the fact that it was a moonless night just 48 hours before an atmospheric river would descend on Oregon over the next few days with its blanket of rain-bearing clouds, which would have made stargazing extremely difficult, as expected.
This was also the ideal night to explore the Sunriver Observatory and Nature Center, not only because of the ultra-dry cold of December, but December 14 was also the height of the Geminid meteor shower and our sheltered group going from telescope to telescope was able to enjoy more than a dozen shooting stars streaking across the sky, especially during the laser-guided constellation tour organized by Yeager on the spacious patio under a wide open sky.
“Winter can be really nice because we still have clear skies in Central Oregon, but a cool, crisp night is when you get the best views,” he notes. “The planets are starting to rise high in the sky right now, so we have a great view of Saturn, and Jupiter is now here at the end of our programs. We also see galaxies popping up like the Andromeda galaxy, the closest galaxy to us, and it’s huge. We’re getting close to where we can get some of the other display galaxies. We’re on the cusp of two seasons, so we got a good example of each type of object.”
As the dreaded light pollution continues to invade every corner of the world, the need to preserve dark skies becomes essential to maintain an elemental connection with our universe and our small but important role in its complex cosmic beauty. As a dedicated student of this scientific field, it is a topic that Yeager is passionate about.
“You can definitely tell when people come from a place where they can’t see the stars,” he adds. “Because even on a moonlit night they’ll look up and be surprised at how many there are. I’ve heard so many times, ‘It’s like they’re in our lap!’ With Sunriver and their lighting practices, that actually started as a way to help nature and nocturnal pollinators. It was a nice benefit that ended up being good for astronomy. Then, light pollution began to increase more and more. People like to look at the night sky.
“It’s one of the big reasons to come live and visit Bend. It’s hard to get it back once you lose it. We’re never going to turn Manhattan into a dark sky area. But as Bend and La Pine grow, it’s easier to protect the lighting and try to preserve it as much as possible and still be able to see at night.”
As the show came to a close and temperatures continued to drop below freezing, customers lined up for one last look. Six-year-old Lucas Kincaid of Molalla, Oregon, stood with his family to take one last look at the enormous main telescope beneath the dome in anxious anticipation, bundled up in his furry hooded jacket like a hibernating bear cub about to meet the Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
“I saw something blue and also Saturn,” he exclaimed. “I’ve never seen a telescope this big!”
It was an exhilarating evening that was both educational and inspiring in this Season of Lights. If your future travel plans find you in Central Oregon anytime this holiday season or in the new year, it’s worth a stimulating visit to the Sunriver Observatory and Nature Center. Reservations are required for Sunriver Observatory’s 90-minute winter in-depth program and you can find more information about pricing and hours year-round at their official website.
