Locate Us

Written by Dave Eaglesham Thursday, 01 October 2009 21:31

The Oldman River Observatory - home of the Lethbridge Astronomy Society is located in Popson Park, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.

For those of you travelling from beyond our galaxy, we are located in the Milky Way. The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy, and is located in a cluster of galaxies referred to as the Local Group. This group of galaxies is dominated by the spiral galaxy Andromeda, but also has a number of dwarf galaxies. The Milky Way is the second largest member of this galaxy group. 

The attached picture will identify the location of our star within the Milky Way Galaxy. As you can see, the star we call Sun is located about 2/3 to 3/4 the way out from the Galactic Core, in a spur of the Orion Arm.

Once you reach the Sun, we recommend you reduce your velocity to near light speed. Our planet is tiny and insignificant in the vastness of the universe, and easily missed. Upon reaching the Sun, look for the 3rd planetary body. It is one of four rocky planets that lie inside of the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars. You will notice the four planets outside the asteroid belt are gas giants. Earth, as we call our planet, has one moon in contrast to Mercury and Venus which have no moons and Mars which has 2 small moons. The distance from the Sun to the Earth is approximately 150,000,000 kilometers or one Astronomical Unit (AU). If you have reduced the speed of your spacecraft to light speed, it will take just over 8 minutes to reach Earth from the Sun.

Upon entering Earth orbit, you will have to locate the western hemisphere. We map Earth by using a grid system of lines: veritcal (longitude) and horizontal (latitude). The City of Lethbridge is located at: 112.89 degrees west longitiude and 49.7 degrees north latitude.

Once you reach the City of Lethbridge, this map will guide you to the Oldman River Observatory.

We sincerely hope you enjoy your stay, and visit often. Make sure you add us to your Map of the Universe for your next visit.