BERNE —  Plans for an astronomical observatory on the the town’s Switzkill Farm property moved a step closer to realization when the sponsoring group recently presented a formal proposal  to town officials and members of the Switzkill Farm Board. The property was formerly called Game Farm Road.

The 21-page proposal for the Helderberg Earth and Sky Observatory came replete with preliminary architectural drawings of a double-domed building housing two telescopes surrounded by a “large wrap-around observation deck.”  It also came with promises of educational exhibits,  landscaped grounds with sundials and “standing stones marking celestial events,” night-time star-gazing for the general public, and a “one-of-a-kind real-time cosmic ray display chamber.”    

The total projected cost of the ambitious project is is $1,250,000, of which $750,000 would go toward construction of the building and almost $100,000 to equipping it, according to preliminary projections.  The observatory would be located atop East Hill, which has a disused shale pit at its summit and is the property’s highest point.

The group behind the plan, the Helderberg Earth and Sky Observatory Planning Committee, is composed of scientists, educators, and environmental advocates.

HESO sees a combination of state, federal, and private foundation money, as well as private donations and university partnerships, as the path to financing the project. Thus far,  the group’s main asset is the core of committed volunteers who serve on the committee, some of whom have been members ever since the idea was first conceived five years ago.

According to the committee chairman, Ron Barnell,  the observatory  would be the third such facility in New York State, joining the Adirondack Public Observatory in Tupper Lake and the Kopernik Observatory and Science Center in Vestal, near Binghamton,  to provide  another place where both scientists and the general public can observe, learn, and interact.

Dark nighttime skies are a must for observatories. On the Bortle scale used to rate degrees of darkness, the Switzkill Farm location — like the Hilltowns in general —  rates a  3 or very dark. The summer Milky way still appears complex in “rural” skies rated at 3. Only the darkest places on Earth — the Atacama region of northern Chile is said to be the darkest — rate a 1.  The brightest is said to be downtown Las Vegas which  earns the scale’s highest rating of 9.

Barnell says that, surprisingly, the remote Tupper Lake observatory  location, far from any city or town, is “not any better than the Helderbergs” in depth of darkness, even though Switzkill Farm is near a metropolitan region.

Letters of support

The 21-page proposal  presented by the group to the town of Berne includes letters of recommendation and support from area universities and public schools, including from professors of physics as both the State University of New York at Albany and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Vincent Meunier, head of the RPI Department of Physics, Applied Physics and Astronomy, says in his letter that this facility will “be particularly important to our top undergraduate students….with a major in astrophysics.”  He is also enthused about the public outreach of the project which “resonates” with funding agencies, he says, especially with the National Science Foundation that aims to “bring STEM [Science Technology Engineering Mathematics] to the general public.”

Ariel Caticha , chair of the SUNY Albany Physics Department, said in her letter that students in several astronomy courses will benefit from the proximity “of the only certified dark-sky park within a 200-mile radius, and the only certified dark-sky observatory within a 300-mile radius.”

In his letter, Timothy Mundell, Berne-Knox-Westerlo school superintendent, said “The development of this facility would be a  tremendous asset to our learning community.”

In its letter, the town of Berne cites  economic development — “bringing individuals from afar to use its resources” — as well as its educational value as reasons to support the planned science center.

Keeping the lights on

The observatory planners are seeking to lease  the land on which the center will sit. They have proposed entering  into a memorandum of understanding with the town that would ensure the town’s commitment to the project through  planning, fundraising, and construction phases. It would also release the town from any commitment should “HESO fundraising efforts fail,” and protect the observatory if there is a change of ownership of Switzkill Farm.

HESO does not yet have legal status, but Barnell says the group should have tax-exempt legal status as a non-profit organization by year’s end.    

Charlie Burgess,  northern New York steward for the Open Space Institute and a member of both the HESO Committee and the Switzkill Farm committee —the  Open Space Institute was instrumental in Berne acquiring the property when the former owners, a Buddhist organization, sold it — is in a unique position to see the proposal from both sides.

He said the town wants to be sure that, once funded, built and operating, the science center does not become a “burden to Berne taxpayers.”

For assurance on that score, he said, the observatory planners need to come up with a “business plan” that convincingly shows how the facility would earn a dependable revenue stream. Work still needs to be done in that area, he said.

“The town wants to know how we will operate,” he said. “They want to make sure the program makes sense for taxpayers.”

“We need to give them some confidence that we can keep the lights on, “ he said

Among the ideas that have been floated, he said,  is renting time on the telescopes to researchers  who want to pursue their observational studies when it is daylight where they are but dark night in Berne. Remote use is quite possible through the internet, he explained, for many kinds of research programs, including exoplanet research (the search for Earth-like planets) and observation of near-Earth asteroids.

Asked about possible university financial support, Burgess said, “I don’t think they are interested in funding construction but might be willing to give some ongoing support. We haven’t had that conversation with them yet.”

Asked if membership might be a revenue sources, he said that, too, is a possibility.

An overarching purpose of the facility is “to give people a better understanding of the world and cosmos,” said Burgess.

He said discussion is ongoing on the subject of how integrated Switzkill Farm programs (Earth) and observatory programs (sky) might be.

The observatory should be a distinct entity,” Burgess said, “but there may be a possibility of shared services.”

He said there is no commitment of funding as  yet, from any source.

Corrected on Sept. 26, 2016: We initially reported the wrong name for the hill on which the observatory would be located; it is East Hill.