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The next time you’re near Ellis Hall, look up, way up, to the big metal dome perched on the roof. That’s the Queen’s Observatory, and inside is a high-powered telescope that on a really clear night might show you our next-door galaxy, Andromeda, a mere 2.5 million light-years away. Chances are, though, Andromeda will appear as a faint smudge. You’re better off looking a little closer to home – to the four Galilean moons of Jupiter, for instance, or the rings of Saturn. Or to the choice celestial object of PhD candidate Akanksha Bij: that big ball of cheese in the sky.

“The Earth’s moon is one of my favourite things to look at through the telescope, especially on a half moon so it’s not too bright,” she says with a smile. “You can see so much detail – all the craters, the darker plains, the lighter highlands. It’s perfect.”

Ms. Bij and fellow PhD candidate Lawrence Faria are the two co-ordinators of the Queen’s Observatory, a non-profit run by the Queen’s/RMC University Astronomy Research Group and the physics department. Together, they use the observatory and the telescope to host everything from school tours to public open houses about black holes, the origins of the universe, and beyond. The point isn’t to do research with the telescope – it’s not powerful enough for that – but to get people excited about space by zooming in on the wonders of what’s out there.

That public outreach has been a cornerstone of the observatory since its very beginnings in the mid-1800s, says Mr. Faria. “And that’s a tradition that we’re really proud of. This is something for the public and connecting with the public and just showing people cool things in space.”

The observatory’s public open houses happen on the second Saturday of every month except December.