In addition to our regular Wednesday night open houses, we also invite groups of twenty to visit our dome facility for a daytime tour April through July. We host 1-hour tours of our telescope facilities for school groups as well as other groups of all ages.

Each tour is broken into 3 sections:

1. Ask an astronomer question/answer period. Your students will be able to interact with professional astronomers, asking either prepared or “on the spot” questions relating to the cosmos. No topic is too big, we have had many fruitful discussions life in the universe, black holes, the formation of stars and planets, technology and instrumentation, and much more!
2. If the sun is out that day, we can make use of our solar telescope. This telescope is designed to look directly at the sun, projecting an image for all the students to see. We can pick out sunspots, show the students where sunspots come from, and even light pencils on fire with the power of the sun. If the sky is not clear that day, we have an array of telescopes which we use to teach the students about optics and how we gather information from space.
3. The highlight is a tour of our new 32 inch telescope - the largest on any Canadian University Campus! In this section, students get to press all the buttons to move our massive telescope and point it toward Venus. They will spin the dome on the roof, have hands on the technology, and learn about our sister planet.

The tours are free but space is limited. They last one hour (although this timing is flexible), and they take place on the 5th floor of the Bob Wright Centre at UVIC. Tours are booked through the UVic Speakers Bureau. Please use the Book Now tab to request tour or further details. We are proud to serve the Victoria community and especially encourage schools to come and visit.

We also hold open house events for lunar/solar eclipses and we can be booked for girl guide/boy scout functions. We employ the solar telescope during the day to look for sunspots, and hold an "ask an astronomer" session.