Space camp, public viewing, education future of David Dunlap Observatory
Town of Richmond Hill approves negotiations with a variety of partners to make DDO a destination

YorkRegion.com
Oct. 30, 2017
Teresa Latchford

The David Dunlap Observatory will soon offer educational and public outreach programing.

Richmond Hill council recently approved a proposal tabled by town staff to begin to negotiate programming partnership agreements for the local landmark. Following a public proposal process, five submissions were received and it was decided the town would pursue a joint partnership with the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada Toronto Centre (RASC-TC) and the David Dunlap Observatory Defenders (DDOD).

“We are extremely excited to have been accepted by the town,” DDOD’s Ian Shelton said. “We want to help make the DDO a destination people know and love.”

Now, the organization is focusing on hashing out a business plan that will include daytime school groups learning curriculum-specific material, public presentations and hosting community groups like the Scouts in the evenings.

“We focus on teaching astronomy and science, thing like where the seasons come from,” he said. “Visits to the grand telescope and watching all 25 tonnes of it adjusted by hand is fascinating.”

Other programming will include events, public viewing nights, key speaker lectures and training workshops.

The town will continue to maintain the buildings.

This partnership, according to Shelton, will allow for much richer programming opportunities that the historical site can grow into.

Since the agreements are non-exclusive, the town plans to also partner with Western University to implement a summer space camp program and with YLab to continue its adult Makers and Educational program.

Shelton expects the programming to be in place by January.

Early in 2016, council announced ownership of both the observatory dome and administration building on the DDO lands were transferred from Corsica Developments to Richmond Hill. Lease negotiations began for exclusive use by the RASC-TC but those negotiations fell through. However, the members who had been using, maintaining and programming the site wanted to carry on under another name, the York Region Astronomical Association (YRAA).

Town staff declined and waited for council’s direction on how to proceed.

The town then invited 35 organizations to bring forward proposals from those interested in programming. Each of the five applicants who submitted proposals also made a presentation and answered questions asked by town staff.