Together; let us explore the stars!

On a warm autumn day in Houston, Texas, in 1962, US President John F Kennedy gave a speech to a 40,000-strong crowd at the local university football stadium that has resonated around the globe ever since. 

“We choose to go to the moon,” he declared. And just seven years later, the remarkably-youthful team at Mission Control — a surprising number of whom had witnessed and were inspired by Kennedy’s speech that day — celebrated as Neil Armstrong took his “one small step” on the moon.

The race to the moon and subsequent Apollo missions fired imaginations the world over and drew a generation’s gaze up to the stars.

Among them was Bathurst astronomer and high school science teacher, Ray Pickard. Although too young to remember the moon landing itself, he believes it was those early days of humanity’s venture into space, that sparked a life-long passion for astronomy.

“They'd advertise in the paper that you could head-outside and watch spacecraft go over and wave to the astronauts on their way to the moon, and that meant learning some of the constellations, where you'd see the spacecraft… so I guess my desire and liking of space grew from there,” said Ray.

Twenty-two years ago, Ray’s desire for dark night skies saw him move from his home in Blacktown to Bathurst, where he set up the Bathurst Observatory Research Facility.

But as Bathurst’s population grew, the suburbs began to encroach on the observatory site, and Ray found the skies in 2017 were no longer as dark as they once had been.

“The housing developments and increasing light pollution meant that a few years ago, I had to search for a different site, so I pulled everything apart and moved it up to Billywillinga (about 25 kilometres north-west of Bathurst) where it's slowly re-opening and being rebuilt,” he said.

Even hunting for the new site took about a year of research, according to Ray, who needed a property that met all the criteria like being above Bathurst’s prevalent fogs, on a nice ridgeline, and with a dark-enough sky.

The relocation of the observatory was finally complete in early 2020 but, with COVID lockdowns and restrictions, it is only now that Ray has managed to move his meteorite collection and open the new onsite museum for visitors.

“I've spent quite a number of years identifying, classifying, and doing a whole lot of public education on meteorites and it’s probably what I'm best known for,” said Ray, who has at least 200 unique meteorite specimens on display.

Last year, Ray was recognised for his work in the field and actually had an asteroid named after him by the International Astronomical Union.

The meteorite museum is still not fully complete as COVID restrictions and, more recently, cloudy skies, have limited the running of tours which provides income for the observatory. Although it is more of a hobby that helps pay its way than a commercial venture, Ray added.

“It’s a hobby where I can share the sky with others, that’s the main goal. I'm a teacher and so spend a lot of time teaching and I think that desire to teach people spread over to the astronomy side as well, and into meteorites, and I just love sharing my knowledge of the sky with people,” he explained.

Generally, if the skies are clear, Ray runs tours at the Bathurst Observatory on Friday and Saturday nights. For a donation to the observatory, you can look at planets and nebulas through one of Ray’s telescopes or bring along your own equipment.

“We are moving towards holding some specialised classes coming up. So there will be classes on photographing the night sky and how to use your telescope better,” said Ray, who believes the wider interest in all things space is still as strong as it was in the Apollo Mission days.

“I think that people today are actually more interested because there are a whole lot of things up there like satellites and the International Space Station that people spot and wonder what they are, then turn to the internet to find out what it is they're actually seeing,” he said.

“So more and more people are appreciating what we have up there in the sky and are asking questions and wanting to learn more.”

For anyone interested in learning about the Bathurst Observatory, you can visit bathurstobservatory.com.au or follow their Facebook page where you will see some truly stunning photos capturing the wonders of the night sky.