Twinkle, twinkle little star may work as a nursery rhyme, but it’s a bummer when you are stargazing. Twinkling stars mean air turbulence, and that along with clouds, city lights, a shining moon and other environmental factors make it hard to look deep into the cosmos.
Stargazing is the reason we drove more than 200 miles into Eastern Washington to one of the few public observatories where anyone with celestial curiosity, a warm jacket and a willingness to stay up late can take “Tours of the Universe” for free.
Goldendale Observatory State Park is like no other in the state. Located on a high plain in the south-central part of Eastern Washington, the observatory has attracted thousands who come for the far-reaching views of the heavens through the lens of a heavy duty telescope.
Here, waiting for the park’s interpretive ranger to open the observatory dome and deploy the telescope, we learned about twinkling stars, dark sky pollution (don’t say light pollution) and a lot more about our universe in a pre-viewing talk.
But the big draw is the view, and on a cold and clear night in the spring, with half a moon throwing shadows across a forest of scrub oaks on Observatory Hill, a couple of dozen adults and children took turns looking through Goldendale’s 24.5-inch reflecting telescope.
With the telescope’s power to magnify more than 600 times what can be seen by the naked eye, we hit pay dirt about 9 p.m.: a stunning view of Saturn and its rings, a thrilling sight. The sharp-eyed even saw one of its many moons, a pinprick of light.
And there was more. An astonishing view of the moon’s crater-pocked surface, a binary star, where one star revolves around another, a galaxy and a messy blob of light known as DFO (dim fuzzy object), basically a mass of stars that cannot be seen by the naked eye.
Stephen Stout, an amateur astronomer who has nurtured his passion for astronomy as the interpretive specialist at Goldendale, mixes just enough science with gee-whiz enthusiasm to make the Goldendale experience work for beginners and the serious.
On our nighttime visit, he talked about planets and comets, showed videos and gave a detailed explanation of our solar system. Outside, under a blanket of darkness with a high moon and the dim lights of little Goldendale in the distance, he demonstrated how to pick out the big and little dippers, the north star and other celestial landmarks with the help a high-powered laser that shot beams of light into the inky night. The sky was ablaze with lights, confirming the benefit of Goldendale’s remote location.
Inside, he maneuvered the hand-built telescope with finesse, rotating the rumbling observatory dome to accommodate the aim of the telescope to pick out different objects. After some fine tuning of the focus, we took turns climbing a big, rolling ladder to place our eye against the telescope eyepiece.
Children and their parents filled the night with cries of ooh and aah and “there it is.”
The hardy can keep viewing until midnight. Summer hours are 2 to 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. to midnight Wednesday through Sunday until Oct. 1. From Oct. 2 to March 30, hours are 2 to 5 p.m. and 7 to 10 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
Goldendale’s story is a testament to human ingenuity. Four men with a yen to build a telescope started the project in 1964 doing nearly all the work in a garage in Vancouver, Wash. It took two years to grind the lens. When finished, they wanted to give the telescope away with the stipulation that it be used for public viewing, not for research.
The folks in Goldendale put on a major effort to bring the telescope east, eventually building the observatory and other buildings on a five-acre site on a hill north of town in 1973. When they ran short of funds, the observatory became a state park in 1980.
On the observatory grounds, there is an interesting collection of sundials, most hand built, showing many different ways to tell time by solar power.
This adventure is more than a day trip, and we stayed Saturday night at the Quality Inn &Suites. Ayutlas, a nearby Mexican restaurant, proved reliable for dinner.
Sunday morning we visited the Maryhill Museum of Art, about a half-hour drive south. The museum, on a bluff high above the Columbia River Gorge, and a nearby replica of England’s Stonehenge, are popular tourist destinations along the Gorge.
These big monuments are the legacy of Sam Hill, the legendary railroad builder, who constructed Maryhill as a private home but never lived there.
In 1940 it opened as a museum, capitalizing on Hill’s connections with the wealthy, the artistic and with Queen Marie of Romania, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria.
The main floor gallery showcases an eclectic collection of costumes, gilded furniture and icons belonging to Queen Marie, including a gold throne and her personal jewelry.
A collection of sculptures and watercolors by Auguste Rodin are on view, plus European and American paintings, including a Charles Russell, changing exhibits by contemporary artists and a collection of unusual chess sets.
A true one-of-a-kind exhibit is the French Mannequins of the Theatre de La Mode exhibit upstairs. At the end of World War II, the French economy was reeling and the country’s fashion industry, which employed 900,000 in 1939, was tapped to help in the rebuilding of the French economy by mounting a touring exhibit of French fashions from the leading houses.
For me, the real treasure is downstairs, where the museum has amassed an important collection of American Indian artifacts, including prehistoric rock carvings, beautifully crafted baskets and bead work, and other artifacts from Pacific Northwest and North American tribes.
Complete a visit to Maryhill with a stop at Stonehenge, a memorial to local soldiers killed in World War I.
This full-scale replica of the English Stonehenge is one mile east of the museum, a curious yet compelling monument that stands silent sentinel above the Gorge.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
