THE BEST SPOT IN CANADA TO OBSERVE THE SKY

By Bruce Masterman

I grind up the steep gradients and hairpins that climb Anarchist Mountain just east of Osoyoos, British Columbia. A small turnoff leads to a building topped by a white dome that reminds me of church domes in Greece.

This is the Observatory Bed & Breakfast, where, on a dark night, the Milky Way glows, the moons of Jupiter wink and you can see for hundreds of light years. (A light year is about 9½ trillion kilometres.)

The door opens and Jack Newton, a tall slim man in his sixties, and his wife Alice envelop me in their friendliness and enthusiasm. "When I retired in 1999, we moved here because it's the best spot in Canada to observe the sky," Newton says. I notice that it's also an excellent place to look downward; the views to Osoyoos and the Okanagan Valley 460 metres below are spectacular.

Newton is no ordinary B&B operator; he is an expert in astrophotography (a fancy name for taking photos of the stars) with a worldwide reputation. Stunning colour photos of galaxies and nebulae taken by Newton line the living-room walls. He has written six books, received numerous awards and is often asked to speak at conferences. Proudly, he shows me a dazzling full-page photo of the sun in the 70th Anniversary issue of Life magazine. To top it off the International Astronomical Society named asteroid 30840 Jackalice in their honour.

Surprisingly, Newton has had no formal training in astronomy. He developed his expertise while working full-time as store manager for Marks & Spencer in Victoria.

NIGHT TIME IS SHOW TIME

Slowly the sun sinks behind the jagged, purple Cascade Mountains, and the darkness we have been so impatiently awaiting arrives. Newton leads his guests (the B&B is always full) up to the dome. The centre of attention is a Meade 16-inch telescope, a large tube that, with its attached cables, smaller telescopes and camera, looks like a giant transformer toy.

The dome is about six metres in diameter and the plywood roof rotates so that a large door can be aligned where the telescope is pointing. "The dome is mounted on an 11-metre concrete pillar anchored in bedrock to minimize vibrations," Newton points out. He turns off the lights and the room is illuminated by faint red light. Newton enters data into a computer and the telescope whirs and moves to point at the star Newton has selected.

There are five guests and one by one we gaze through the eyepiece. We look at single and double stars, the Ring Nebula, the Pleiades, the Milky Way and the moons of Jupiter. Newton's enthusiasm fills the darkness. "Space is immense," he says, "it's 13.7 billion light years across, and continues to expand." We casually look at light from stars and galaxies thousands of light years away.

The evening is exhilarating, carried by Newton's passion and knowledge. "Scientists estimate there are 800 billion stars in the universe," he tells us, "and it is now recognized that most stars have accompanying planets. Thus, the chance of life out there is very high."

Newton has programmed the telescope to automatically search and photograph the skies for supernovae every night. To date, he's discovered 73, an impressive record, and useful since astronomers use supernovae to measure distances.

To close the show, Newton points one of the smaller telescopes at the bright full moon. The dome is filled with hushed oohs and aahs as we peer at a stark landscape of mountains, valleys and craters that seem close enough to touch.

THE NEWTONS GO SOUTH EVERY WINTER

Then Newton describes the Arizona Sky Village that he helped establish in the Chiricahua Mountains 150 miles southeast of Tucson. It's the world's first community designed for amateur astronomers. "We spend our winters there and I have a setup similar to what you see here," he says. The site is considered the best in the USA for star viewing because of its dryness, high-altitude and lack of light pollution. Fellow astronomers are also building homes with observatories.

"Since my telescopes are computer-driven, I can operate them from anywhere in the world," he notes. We watch as he manipulates the telescope into position and shows us pictures of stars on his computer, some of which are not visible from our northerly position.

On the way down from the dome, we stop briefly at Newton's projection room where a 3.7-metre high-definition screen fills one wall. "When it's too cloudy to see with the telescopes, I give guests a slide show and Astronomy 101 talk in here," he says.

When it's late and we're tired, I head to my bedroom, the Moon Room (there are also the Eclipse and Saturn suites), which is awash with suns, moons and celestial decor. The lights of Osoyoos twinkle below. Soon I am dreaming of galaxies far away.

A LIFELONG PASSION

Over breakfast, our astronomy lesson continues at an elegantly laid table. We sip coffee, munch on strawberry cobbler and yogurt, savour views of the valley and learn about the universe. Newton explains how he built the first "cold camera." In pre-digital days, film produced better photos if it was chilled. Newton constructed a camera cooled by dry ice and was the first to take celestial photographs using this technology, which operates at about 40 below.

In 1991, Newton became the first to make colour digital images of the stars. The first photograph, M27 the Dumbbell Nebula, appeared on the cover of Astronomy Magazine.

Newton was drawn to astronomy at an early age. "I bought my first telescope when I was 11," he says. "When the other kids wouldn't believe that I could see the rings of Saturn, I bought a camera with my paper-route money and built a mechanism so it could take photos through the telescope. It worked."

After breakfast, we climb again to the observatory. Newton shows us the sun through special filters. We see solar flares, prominences and sunspots as Newton explains magnetic storms and how our sun is slowly changing into a red giant.

As the other guests depart to tour wineries, Newton leads me to his workshop. "I don't usually show this because it's so messy." The small room is crammed with lathes, drill presses, metal machining tools and pieces of cameras." Newton has a prodigious talent for building innovative devices, especially cameras, and I'm standing right in the crowded workshop where it all comes together.

Later, when it's time to leave, I drive down the mountain with my mind whirling. I have caught a humbling glimpse of the smallness of humans in an immense universe. And I have also had the honour of meeting a remarkable human spirit.

The Observatory B&B is open mid-April to mid-October. To book a night or to learn about astronomy, visit www.jacknewton.com.