HALIFAX—In a picturesque village in southwestern Nova Scotia sits an observatory operated by a legally blind amateur astronomer.

Timothy Doucette’s Deep Sky Eye Observatory in Quinan, N.S., has welcomed more than 1,000 visitors from as far away as Germany and Australia since its official 2016 opening. Doucette said the overwhelming demand for astro-tourism in this part of the province has led him to expand his grounds to include overnight accommodations for stargazers beginning later this summer. Campsites, a cottage and bubble tents with clear tops for stargazing are all in the works.

The observatory has been “been pretty much full every clear night during the summer months,” Doucette said. “This was supposed to be a retirement project, but it has taken off beyond anything we could have imagined.”

Deep Sky is located in the Acadian Skies & Mi’kmaq Lands Starlight Reserve, which includes the municipalities of Yarmouth, Argyle and Clare. The province’s tourism website notes it’s one of only four places in the world to receive both the Starlight Reserve and Starlight Destination designations from the Starlight Foundation, which collaborates with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
 

“Starlight tourism is something that’s just been taking off in the last maybe five or 10 years, and we’re the first in North America to receive (a Starlight) designation, so it sets a precedent,” Doucette said.

“We have the potential for this starlight tourism to really take off ... in the whole of southwest Nova, because that’s one thing that makes us stand out from everybody else in North America.”

From his earliest childhood, Doucette was fascinated by the night sky, but was discouraged from pursuing his passion because of his limited eyesight. Born with congenital cataracts that weren’t noticed until he was more than one year old, Doucette was left with 10 per cent of normal vision.

By age 16 and after several eye surgeries, his vision dropped to five per cent. The cataracts had returned. He underwent another surgery to completely remove the lenses of his eyes and to bring his vision back up to 10 per cent.

The removal of his lenses left him with excellent night vision and the ability to see ultraviolet light, something Doucette said gives him an advantage over the average stargazer.

“I use the ring nebula as kind of a starting point, because that’s when I discovered when I was looking through the telescope and ... describing what I saw, it wasn’t what others saw,” he recalled.

Tim Doucette poses with his telescope at The Deep Sky Eye Observatory that he operates in Quinan, Yarmouth County. Doucette, who is legally blind, says his eye issue gives him an advantage as he sees in the UV spectrum.  (YVETTE D’ENTREMONT/STARMETRO HALIFAX)

“One night I said I saw a doughnut with two little stars and like a pool of water inside the middle of the doughnut, and my friend was like, ‘You shouldn’t be able to see that with this size telescope.’ ”

The discovery of what he jokingly calls his superpower was made by accident. Doucette got back into his childhood hobby in 2003 after his wife Amanda bought him a telescope. That same year, he was stargazing with the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.

“That was the year Mars was going to be the closest it was going to be in 30,000 years … (Other astronomers) were pretty amazed that night because I was seeing things they couldn’t see,” he said. “I was like, ‘This doesn’t make sense. I’m the blind one.’ ”

Becoming a member of the Royal Astronomical Society and discovering he could see in the ultraviolet band rekindled his love for astronomy. He was living in Moncton, N.B., where despite the city’s light pollution, he set up an observatory that welcomed youth groups, students and teachers, families and organizations to monthly open houses.

In 2014, he moved back to his childhood village of Quinan.

“Of course I had to rebuild the observatory. I always knew it was so dark here, and around the time we moved we got the (Starlight) designation,” he recalled.

Doucette was approached in 2013 by Starlight auditors from the Canary Islands who were assessing the skies in southwestern Nova Scotia. They asked for his input and some of his photos.

“After we got the designation I was thinking, yes, this is awesome. We’re going to put the observatory here, we’re going to build it here, try it out for a couple of years and see how it works,” he said. “It really, really took off.”

His observatory offers two main experiences. The first focuses on looking at the moon’s features and the visible planets.

The Milky Way as seen from Tim Doucette's Deep Sky Eye Observatory in Quinan, Yarmouth County. The observatory has been drawing in many visitors to take in the clear view of the night sky thanks to little light pollution, and use Doucette's powerful telescope.  (TIM DOUCETTE/SUPPLIED)

For the two-week span when there’s little moonlight, he operates the exploring space program, which allows visitors to see galaxies, nebulae (dust clouds) and double stars.

With the expansion of his observatory’s grounds on the banks of the Quinan River to allow for overnight accommodations, Doucette is now working on other stargazing initiatives that will include other local businesses.

Deep Sky is partnering with a local studio to offer a sunset yoga session followed by stargazing. He’s also looking forward to a stargazing evening that will include paddleboats on the water.

“My grand plan is to incorporate starlight activities with all the businesses that want it and to help train people to be starlight people if you will — stargazers, so that they can have stargazing experiences of their own,” he said.

Doucette is also determined to educate people living in the Starlight Reserve area about the effects of light pollution and how they can help minimize them. His efforts with the region’s dark-sky development committee recently bore fruit when the local Tusket Ford dealership began turning its 24 bright lot lights off at 10:30 p.m. each evening.

“What Tim has done to raise awareness in the area is amazing. Honestly before he talked about it I didn’t even realize that light pollution was a thing,” Tusket Ford owner Marcel Pothier said.

“You take it for granted when you live in a rural area that when you look up, you see the stars. Tim has taught me and many others how fortunate we are to be in this part of the world and to have access to the dark skies that we do.”

Pothier said the local and international response to Doucette’s observatory is a huge benefit to everyone living in the region.

“People are coming here from Europe and all over the world to our little neck of the woods, because it’s something that they just don’t have,” Pothier said.

“We’re very fortunate. In a way it’s kind of a natural resource that we can leverage, and if it helps bring people to the area and helps generate spinoff effects in the economy, that’s super.”

Doucette believes starlight tourism is set to really take off in the region, and he’s determined to do his part to share his passion with everyone. That includes actively encouraging visits from people with visual impairments.

“If you even have a slight inclination to look through a telescope, come see us because we have the technology. I do as much as I can to accommodate those who are visually impaired,” he said.

When asked why he remains so devoted to his hobby despite continuing to hold down a full-time job as a computer programmer, Doucette explained it boils down to a paraphrase of a brief quote by astrophysicist Carl Sagan. “We are made of stardust.”

“Yes, I’m small here on Earth, I’m tiny. But once you start learning about the universe, once you start learning what you’re actually made of, I was made with something that’s out there, up there, so I’m part of that,” he said.

“I started to realize that I’m feeling bigger, and that’s an interesting premise. The fascination comes from a desire for exploration and from curiosity — and the simple fact that we all come from stardust.”