Dwight Ince sits his daughter Lindsay on his knee and patiently points out constellations to the squirming three-year-old.
“Sometimes I’m here and there’s nobody here, other times it’s like it is today,” Ince said Saturday of the crowds at the Centre of the Universe in Saanich. “Having a place like this is pretty rare … and I think it should be open no matter the cost.”
It was a busy day at the centre Saturday, the last day the educational arm of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory was open to the public.
Ince remembers the thrill of watching television broadcasts of rockets lifting off.
“I watched, as live as you could get, men walking on the moon,” he said. “That was in the ’60s and ’70s. Now rockets go up all the time and it’s never on the news.”
While Ince toured the displays with his daughter, other visitors packed the main entrance, waiting to view the Plaskett telescope located next door in the observatory.
The federal government announced in June that the 12-year-old Centre of the Universe would be closed due to funding cutbacks.
The facility cost an average of $310,000 a year to operate and generated revenues of about $50,000 to $60,000 annually, said Greg Fahlman, who manages the programs at the observatory. Total budget cuts were $1.8 million.
Fahlman said he was surprised by the public outpouring of support and said it highlights the uniqueness of the centre.
“There’s nothing else like it. You don’t know how valuable it is until it turns out you’re going to lose it,” he said.
The observatory and its Plaskett telescope, which is used by researchers, will continue to operate.
Local researchers are also lamenting the loss of the centre.
“It’s sad and a real shame. It’s hard to believe the federal government couldn’t find a way to keep this place open,” said Russell Robb, the senior lab instructor for the department of physics and astronomy at the University of Victoria.
Robb was wandering through the centre on Saturday afternoon, admiring the displays for a final time.
He said the centre provided a great opportunity to teach children about the wonders of space and closing it will be a loss for educators.
While visitors explored the exhibits inside the building, Saanich South MLA Lana Popham sat at the bottom of Observatory Hill, collecting signatures for a petition asking the federal government to keep the centre open.
Popham said people were already lined up to sign the petition when she arrived at 3:30 p.m., highlighting the popularity of the centre and its exhibits.
The petition will be presented in the House of Commons by Randall Garrison, MP for Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca, when Parliament next sits, Popham said.
