School Telescope Program

History of Victoria Centre's School Telescope Program

In early 1996 at a council meeting of the Victoria Centre, a motion was passed to initiate the Victoria Centre's "School Telescope Program" under the leadership of Sid Sidhu. The intent was to provide an opportunity for school age children to look through a telescope and enjoy the wonders of the night sky.

The program involved making a 15 cm Dobsonian telescope to be borrowed by Elementary School in School District #61. In August 1996 a letter was sent to the Elementary Schools of District #61, with McKenzie Elementary being the first to borrow a telescope in September.

The first year, eleven schools used the only telescope available for loan. However slowly the word spread to other school districts, which necessitated the building of two more 15 cm Dobsonian telescopes. In 1998 a Celestron C-8 with clock drives was donated to the Centre with the provision that it be used as part of the School Telescope Program. Now there are three Dobs for the elementary schools, one for each school district (SD#61, SD#62, SD#63) and one C-8 to be shared by High Schools in all three school districts.

The program has slightly changed from the first year of simply offering the use of a telescope, to include slide presentations in the classrooms and facilitating night sky viewing for the students, teachers and parents. The program now reaches almost 1,500 to 2,000 students a year. Many thanks go to our volunteers.