Enchantment with the cosmos: A look back at UCalgary’s quest to study space

The views are breathtaking high atop Sulphur Mountain in Banff National Park.

Each year, thousands of visitors ride the gondola to the summit of the mountain to take in the picturesque landscape of the surrounding Rocky Mountains.

You don’t have to look far to find a plaque commemorating the historic Sulphur Mountain Cosmic Ray Station, which was operated by the University of Calgary for most of its existence.

Equipped with special telescopes to study cosmic and nuclear energy, researchers were able to get a unique vantage point from more than 2,300 metres above sea level on diverse topics including atmospheric ozone and solar ultraviolet radiation, and even on the growth and decline of glaciers.  

The station was closed in 1978, dismantled in 1981, and designated a National Historic Site in 1982, but its legacy is still felt at UCalgary today.

High atop the mountain

Construction on the small laboratory, which looked more like a rustic cabin than a research hub, began in 1956.

Led by the National Research Council, it was one of 50 cosmic ray stations set up around the world for the International Geophysical Year of 1957-1958.

They were hoping to better understand cosmic rays: high-energy particles from outer space that move at nearly the speed of light and can come from a variety of sources, including the sun and solar flares. 

The Sulphur Mountain site had the highest altitude of the four Canadian locations, which also included Ottawa, Churchill and Resolute Bay.

“Since the rays are readily absorbed in the atmosphere, their intensity is much greater at high altitudes,” wrote the Calgary Herald in July 1956 in explaining why Banff was chosen as a location for the station. “The rays are seven times as intense as at Ottawa.”

Research activities began in the lab on July 1, 1957, with mountain air samples filtered through a machine to determine how “pure” the air was.

“The machine used for filtering does the job of a vacuum cleaner in sifting dust particles from the earth’s atmosphere,” wrote reporter Elizabeth Motherwell in the Calgary Albertan on Aug. 29, 1958. “The samples are sent by regular post daily to the National Research Council, where they are studied for their radioactive content. The Banff laboratory may make a similar study with the radioactivity of rain.”

The program, managed by Dr. B.G. Wilson, also had secondary research focuses on atmospheric ozone, glaciers and solar ultraviolet radiation.

Taking a chance on something new

It didn’t take long for University of Alberta at Calgary (UAC) officials to pursue involvement with research work at Sulphur Mountain.

President Walter Johns, who presided over both Edmonton and Calgary campuses, boasted about the growth of each institution and how new facilities would be needed at a Calgary convocation ceremony October 1960.

In his speech, he said the Sulphur Mountain research station was officially part of the university.

“It is evident that, in their wisdom, the people of Alberta and their government regard expenditures on education not as ‘operating expenses,’ but as investments in their youth and in the future,” Dr. Malcolm Taylor said in his inaugural address after being installed as principal at UAC.

A month later, an official ceremony was held on an icy-cold day to celebrate the transfer from the National Research Council to UAC, with Taylor saying the university’s first two graduate students to earn their master’s degrees completed their research work there. 

Expanding footprints in space

Over the next decade, researchers continued to dig deeper into their interests in space.

The Department of Physics (now Department of Physics and Astronomy) was created in 1963, a space-research associate committee was later started, experiments were conducted, and information was dissected on a range on everything from cosmic rays to even building their own rockets.

Even after UAC gained autonomy and became the University of Calgary in 1966, the sky remained a focus as officials planned a new facility closer to home to focus on astronomy.

The Rothney Astrophysical Observatory near Priddis officially opened on Jan. 7, 1972, with the director of the Royal Greenwich Observatory, Dr. Margaret Burbridge, in attendance for the ceremony.

She told the Calgary Albertan that UCalgary’s site, located southwest of the city on land owned by Alexander “Sandy” Cross, was ideal as many observatory sites, particularly in California, were suffering from increasing air pollution and city lights.

The facility, named by Cross in honour of his grandmother’s family name, became the primary site for space-related research when, in 1978, the Sulphur Mountain lab was left idle because of a lack of research money.

The university’s lease with Parks Canada for the cosmic ray lab ended in the fall of 1980, with the building demolished soon after, but its scientific legacy was assured.  

“The data from Sulphur Mountain has been extremely valuable,” physics professor Dr. Doraswamy Venkatesan told the Calgary Herald, adding the information would help provide important context for future analysis. “It’s a valuable archive, like a rare manuscript.”

What could have been

UCalgary continued to be a national leader in space research when it was chosen as the headquarters of the new Canadian Network for Space Research in October 1989.

It was one of 14 “centres of excellence” announced by the federal government aimed at linking scientists with companies to work on high-atmosphere experiments and building industrial competitiveness in spacecraft instrumentation and remote-sensing technology.

Physics professor Dr. Leroy Cogger was tapped as program leader, focusing on five key areas: the Earth’s middle atmosphere, auroral processes, the polar environment, the plasma environment in space, and spacecraft instrumentation.

He told the Herald they were looking to develop “an adequate knowledge of the space environment and the means by which it can be sensed so as to minimize the possibilities of error as we begin to seriously exploit the space environment.”

However, the network shut down in 1994 due to federal government cutbacks.

Preserving its space in Southern Alberta

Standing the test of time, the Rothney Astrophysical Observatory (RAO) has remained a staple on the landscape of the foothills.

Cross originally gifted the quarter-section it stands on to UCalgary upon hearing about plans for an observatory. It began with just one telescope and a classroom made from two connected ATCO trailers.

The Rothney now operates multiple research-grade telescopes and instrument suites with plenty of time for researchers, student groups of all ages and the public to take a look at all that’s overhead.

From studying the impacts of artificial light on birds and animals to discovering comets and asteroids, it is a place where the imagination has been allowed to run wild.

“There is only one Canadian university that funds and operates a fabulous, advanced astronomical observatory far from its main campus, outside the city’s bright lights,” says current Rothney director Dr. Phil Langill, BSc’85, PhD’94.

With concerns over urban growth impacting the amount of dark sky above the observatory, RAO is in regular communication with city planners and developers to advocate for lighting strategies that will reduce light pollution.

“The goal is to encourage everyone to use the absolute minimum amount of outdoor light at night … so that everyone can enjoy a star-filled sky, and the natural world can function as Mother Nature intended,” Langill says. “If that can be achieved, people will be more in tune with nature, and RAO astronomers can continue to study the mysteries of the universe for at least another 50 years.”