Nearly 1,000 show up to Rancho Mirage Observatory dedication

Coachella Valley residents have been waiting several years for the Rancho Mirage Observatory to open and on Sunday, the dream came one step closer to reality.

Roughly 1,000 people gathered outside the new structure for a dedication ceremony and the first glimpse of the state-of-the-art facility. The observatory was built on the west side of the library and will be open to the public in the near future.

“It’s pretty awesome. We’ve been to the one in L.A., so this is nice to have one that is closer to our home,” said Adriana Gomez.

The day included guest speakers, a ribbon cutting and a first glimpse inside the new multi-million-dollar building.

“It’s beautiful. Beautiful high tech,” said Loni Schonberg.

Locals were escorted up the walk to the stars, past the stargazing platform to inside the facility where they found the star of the show- a 28-inch planewave CDK700 telescope.

“The telescope was really big,” said Itayetzi Gomez.

The city hired astronomer Eric McLaughlin to handle the operations.

“What’s really unique about this facility is that it is going to be providing a lot more access than virtually any other observatory in the world to the public,” said McLaughlin. “For locals we will be having a number of different experiences. We will be having stargazing opportunities on the deck and we will also be opening up the telescope to even be able to look directly through the eye piece, as well as even potentially be able to select an object and have the telescope go and take a picture.”

McLaughlin said the observatory will began public programs in the near future.

At the groundbreaking in December 2016, organizers said the observatory was going to be similar to the Griffith Observatory in Hollywood.

“It’s going to be a central focal point for education, for science, for children, for the public, for people like you and me,” said Ashley Thomas McDermott, founder of the Astronomy Society of the Desert.

“There’s a lot of interest and it will help for the kids to learn science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and maybe inspire some of the new astronauts of the future,” said resident Carl Twombly.

But what would the astronauts of the past think about it? The ceremony’s keynote speaker– Rick Armstrong, son of astronaut and moonwalker Neil Armstrong, weighed in.

“I was never very good about predicting what he would say about stuff, but I’m sure he’d be very enthusiastic about the quality, obviously, of the facility and the impact that it’s going to have on the community– and the interest in space and learning,” Armstrong told KESQ News Channel 3’s and CBS Local 2’s Katie Widner. “He’d be totally 100 percent behind that, I’m sure.”