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Edward Harp captured this brilliant shot of WR 134 in Cygnus with his SVX152T. This Wolf-Rayet star sits 6,000 light-years away from Earth and is surrounded by a faint bubble nebula, blown by the intense radiation and fast wind from the star itself. This object is 5 times the radius of the Sun and 400,000 times as luminous. The nebula surrounding it is a shell of hydrogen thought to have been swept up from the interstellar medium when one or both stars were on the main sequence.

Autumn is here! And so is Bob MacArthur. Watch his full video for a recap on October's celestial events. The last event takes place tomorrow night 10/27. Watch the waxing gibbous Moon rise with (M54) the Pleiades. Clear Skies!

Watch Here: In the Sky - October 2026

The Hopservatory building and dome at Worthy Garden Club and Brewing Company.

I run the Hopservatory at Worthy Brewing in Bend, Oregon. My work in public astronomy started in 2014, when my college astronomy professor, Bob Grossfeld, hired me out of his class to do outreach at the Oregon Observatory in Sunriver. I worked there for several years, learning how to run telescopes and talk with people about what they were seeing. While I was there, I heard that Worthy Brewing was building an observatory. My immediate thought was, "I have to be involved in that."

By the time I got in touch with the team at Worthy Brewing, construction was already underway. Bob and I started helping with equipment selection, setup, and the first programs. Eventually, I was hired to run it. The Hopservatory opened on May 17, 2017, and I've been there ever since.

It was an incredible opportunity. In a way, I got to run my own observatory, with access to great equipment and a steady stream of people to share it with. Worthy Garden Club operates the program, and we have a 16-inch RCOS Ritchey-Chrétien in the dome above the brewery. We offer public nights, school programs, private tours, and seasonal solar viewing. Public nights are free, with donations welcome and no reservations required.

Hopservatory's 16-inch, research-grade telescope in a third-floor dome which allows visitors to view distant planets, galaxies, star clusters, nebulae and, of course, the moon!

When we first opened, some visitors had heard about the observatory and came specifically to see it. Others were just having dinner downstairs, heard me announce that the telescope was open, and decided to come up. There were great questions from kids and adults, and a few that weren't covered in astronomy class. It is a brewery, after all.

Two questions come up a lot. The first is, "How powerful is the telescope?" Or "How much does it magnify?" I usually use that as a chance to talk about the quality of the optics and how much light the telescope collects. Magnification changes with the eyepiece, and the useful amount depends on the object and the conditions. The biggest number isn't necessarily the best view.

The other question is, "Why is there a telescope at a brewery?" I'll sometimes joke, "Have you ever had a couple of beers and ordered something weird on the internet?"

Then I explain the real idea behind it. Roger Worthington, the owner of Worthy Brewing, is an avid supporter of science and public education. He wanted the brewery to be a place where people could gather, have conversations, and learn something. The observatory grew out of that idea.

Getting into the science is a huge part of why I love this work. At a brewery, though, people are also out to enjoy themselves. Part of my job is to read the room, joke around, and make the science easy to follow. A little humor helps people relax and ask questions they might otherwise keep to themselves.

There are good reasons to put an observatory on a mountain, far outside town. But a public observatory also needs people to be able to get to it. Being at a brewery within Bend's city limits means we reach people who might never have planned a trip to an observatory. Someone hears there's a telescope upstairs and decides to come take a look.

Now that we're approaching our tenth anniversary in 2027, more people know about us and come specifically for the observatory. But we still get plenty who discover it while they're on site. I suspect many of the people I show objects to have never looked through a telescope before. Between the observatory and off-site programs, I reach roughly 15,000 people a year. Being able to provide that first experience for so many of them feels very fulfilling.

I'm not expecting everyone to have a profound revelation at the eyepiece, although that can happen. What I'm usually hoping for is something smaller. A question catches their attention, or some detail changes how they think about what they're seeing. Maybe they go home and look it up. Maybe that leads to another question about astronomy, or life, or some other part of nature.

An image Grant caught of the Milky Way core.

If even one percent of the people I talk with leave paying a little more attention, that adds up. Curiosity doesn't have to turn into a new hobby or a career to matter. I sometimes say that our line of sight rarely extends beyond the edge of the parking lot, or, on a good day, the distant mountains. For most of human history, a dark night offered a much longer view. Modern lighting has changed that experience remarkably quickly. I think having a telescope at a brewery is a funny way to connect us back to that big thing beyond. A big part of my programming also happens away from the observatory. Taking a telescope to people is another way to give them that first opportunity to look.

My Stellarvue SVX115T on a Stellarvue M002C alt-azimuth mount has become a critical part of that work. When I connected with Vic Maris, he was incredibly helpful in figuring out what would fit my needs. We talked about what he recommended, what he enjoys using himself, and how I wanted to use the telescope. Together, we worked out the setup I'd spent years looking for: something I could enjoy personally and also use to share views of the sky with other people. The optical quality is unbelievable, and the compact size and ease of use make doing outreach an absolute treat. I use it for night-sky viewing and, with the appropriate solar filter, daytime solar outreach. Having a setup that's this enjoyable to use makes me want to get it out and share it more often.

Two brilliant pictures that Grant captured of comet Neowise back in 2020.

Photography grew out of much the same impulse. Once I started working late nights at the Oregon Observatory, I was seeing these beautiful skies and thinking, "If I can figure out how to capture this, I can share it with people who aren't here." I do a lot of travel photography as well as astrophotography. I enjoy getting out and seeing these things myself, and I enjoy finding ways to bring other people into the experience.

I've done some deep-sky imaging, but I'm especially drawn to wider views: a full Milky Way time-lapse, a comet setting over a mountain, a distant moonrise, or the Orion Nebula above a lake. Sometimes I'll use a portrait lens or a short telephoto to bring something closer while keeping a foreground in the frame.

For me, including the landscape makes those objects feel more tangible. You can recognize a mountain or a lake and then place the sky in relation to it. I admire detailed deep-space images, but an isolated object can be harder for someone unfamiliar with it to connect with. A foreground gives them somewhere to begin. Astronomy covers almost everything beyond Earth, which is quite a lot to get your head around. A familiar landscape helps.

My dark-sky work started with Lights Out Bend, which focused largely on birds and migration. Over time, that effort grew into what is now DarkSky Oregon, an independent nonprofit chapter of DarkSky International working on education, sky-brightness measurements, and the protection of Oregon's nighttime environment. Locally, Bend Night Sky Alliance is a subgroup doing community outreach and advocating for better outdoor lighting. [1]

The measurements help put numbers to what we're seeing. DarkSky Oregon's published 2025 analysis estimated that the sky directly above the Hopservatory had been getting brighter by about seven percent a year over the study period. [2] That's a serious issue for an observatory trying to introduce people to the night sky. We won't get the same view here as we would far outside town, but we can work to preserve what we have and improve it.

Deschutes County updated its outdoor lighting rules in 2025, and local advocates are working toward improvements within Bend as well. [3] There's even the possibility of Bend becoming the world's largest International Dark Sky Community. Flagstaff currently holds that distinction, with about 77,000 residents; Bend has about 107,000. [4] It's an ambitious goal, but I'd love to see us get there.

Southeastern Oregon lies within the largest contiguous dark-sky zone in the lower 48 states. [5] Those skies draw visitors here. Astro-tourism can help support conservation, but I think the residents deserve just as much attention. People grew up here and stayed, or moved here, because they value the outdoors and the natural environment. The night sky is part of that too.

I'd like people to have the chance to see it from the place they live. And if their first step is coming upstairs after dinner to look through a telescope, I'm glad we can be there for that.

Grant letting a passerby look through his Stellarvue SVX115T refractor.

Sources and Publication Information:

Permissions and supporting material:

Worthy Garden Club has approved this feature and the use of relevant images and text from its website. Please retain existing photo credits. Hopservatory information and current hours | Grant Tandy: photography and background

[1] Organizations:

DarkSky Oregon: Get Involved describes its status as an independent nonprofit chapter of DarkSky International. Bend Night Sky Alliance is identified as a local subgroup.

[2] Hopservatory Sky Brightness:

DarkSky Oregon: Where are the starry night skies disappearing fastest? (January 29, 2025). Its published analysis estimates about 7% annual brightening at the Hopservatory over the study period. This is a historical trend estimate, not a forecast.

[3] County Lighting Rules:

Deschutes County: Dark Skies Text Amendments. Adopted September 24, 2025; effective December 23, 2025.

County rules are distinct from Bend's city regulations.

[4] Population and Certification Comparison:

City of Flagstaff: Dark Sky Place of the Year identifies Flagstaff as the largest such community by population.

Census Bureau July 1, 2025 estimates: Flagstaff, 77,260; Bend, 107,342.

[5] Oregon Outback:

DarkSky International: Oregon Outback certification describes the sanctuary as lying within the largest

contiguous dark-sky zone in the lower 48 United States.

An image of the Milky Way that Grant captured on a camping trip in Oregon's high desert.

To learn more about the Hopservatory, visit: https://www.worthygardenclub.org/hopservatory

To see more of Grant's photography, visit:

Stargazing tours & Astrophotography workshops | Bend, Oregon Astronomy

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