Also popular is a 16-session course on beginning astronomy taught each winter by an Olympic College instructor. Free monthly lectures bring in outside experts, including UW astronomers. As twilight descends, amateur astronomers set up their own powerful telescopes out on the lawn. They've been here till 2 o'clock in the morning. Stargazing parties are held twice a month, weather permitting.
Stars are higher in the sky now, and darkness sets in at a more reasonable hour.
In summer, astronomical twilight straggles in around 11 p.m., forcing stargazers to work into the wee hours. These gatherings usually coincide with the first and third phases of the moon, when the craters seem to jump right out. Boeing donations helped The observatory's driving force was the late Ed Ritchie, a retired contractor and mechanical genius who saw the potential in the abandoned radio blockhouse. Racing to work up a proposal before the island park district's next meeting two days hence, Ritchie roughed out a plan for building a telescope while Rudolph, an architect, considered how to adapt Helix House for astronomical use. Gardiner, meanwhile, set about creating the Battle Point Astronomical Association to oversee the project.