Public invited to see Saturn through massive telescope at Grenfell Campus

Memorial University's Grenfell Campus in Corner Brook is inviting the public to check out the province's only professional telescope.

The Grenfell Campus Observatory, the largest in Atlantic Canada, is run by husband-and-wife duo of Doug Forbes and Darlene English.

The $500,000 telescope opened in 2012, and when the astronomers aren't teaching or researching a new star cluster, they invite the public to pop by to see the stars for themselves.

Forbes recently gave a tour of the observatory to a group of Grade 6 students from St. Peter's Academy.

"You see galaxies, you see bunches of stars. It's a big bucket to collect light. It's a 60-centimetre mirror," Forbes said.

Images from the telescope are sent back to the lab for a closer look.

"We have one of the best jobs you could possibly have," Forbes said. "I mean, we are figuring out how the universe works. You can't beat that."

Student Brady Hackett said he enjoyed the field trip.

"It was awesome learning about it ... The telescope, it's huge," he said.

Members of the public could see Saturn or the moon at one of the public observing nights, which will take place later this summer.