Same group that operates popular Screamboat to showcase celestial wonders
Members of the public and students and are invited to gaze at winter’s stars while strolling through an outdoor structure that’s part ice-and-snow sculpture and part outdoor mandala.
The Crystal Observatory, built by the Colorado Mountain College Sky Club, will be up and running by Jan. 31 and return during the Steamboat Springs Winter Carnival weekend.
“To my knowledge,” said Jimmy Westlake, noted CMC professor of physical science, award-winning astro-photographer and Sky Club advisor, “this is the only ice observatory in the history of civilization.”
But the observatory is more than an observatory – you could even call it a Crystal Cosmos.
Participants will follow a circular trail in the snow that leads them through a to-scale model of our solar system sculpted from ice. Along the way, visitors will enjoy views from a telescope and several man-made attractions including a laser light show projected against a snow screen, a snow-sculpture version of Stonehenge (“Snowhenge”) and a giant, walk-in, flying saucer carved from the snow.
The final stop is the crystal observatory, where the tour’s largest telescope will be located. Surrounding it, enormous stalagmite icicles will create a curved wall of crystal columns.
According to Westlake, the universe seems to be cooperating with the Sky Club’s efforts for the event. The planet Jupiter is currently as close to the Earth as it gets, and on the morning of Jan. 23, a supernova that erupted in a nearby galaxy became visible.
It’s a rare opportunity, said Westlake, to see a supernova from another galaxy 12 million light years away. “There hasn’t been one in our own galaxy since 1604,” he said. Throw in sightings of the moon’s craters, the great Orion nebula, and Pleides, and viewers are in for a night to remember.
The Crystal Observatory will be open on the CMC campus in Steamboat Springs Jan. 31 and Feb. 1, 6, 7, 8 and 9, from 7 to 10 p.m.
Tickets must be purchased on nights when the observatory is open, at the ticket table located on the second level of CMC’s new academic and student services building, where tour guides will lead visitors to the observatory grounds.
Tickets are $10 per person, with all proceeds going to support the CMC Sky Club. Kids under six and students with a valid CMC ID get in for free. Appropriate winter footwear is advised.
For more information, contact Westlake at 970-870-4537.