Sun River Nature Center and Observatory

Ok so I couldn’t figure out why this was a must go. I went & it’s a must go. 930 at night $ 8.00 and you get to look through telescopes, have knowledgeable people tell you what you are looking at & answer your questions. A little class (optional) that puts some size/​distance perspectives into view. There is a free time during the day when u can look at the SUN, too.
I went twice!

Excellent spot to take a bike riding break and learn a few new things.
Some years we spend hours. Some years just a quick visit. But the site of the all white owl is very impressive and can certainly transfix all ages for a long period of time.
Extra points when they cough up pellets in front of you!

We went to the Nature Center, but not the Observatory. The Nature Center is small, but they do have a number of objects that the kids can put their hands on such as real animal skins and meteorites. They rehab injured birds and when we visited they had 4 owls, a hawk, and a golden eagle. The 3 year old wanted to stay and look at the birds over and over and over again. A short nature walk provides views of ducks, geese, a swan, and a large beaver dam. The staff are very friendly and one of them sat with us and named all the birds (chickadees, blackbirds, jays, etc) coming to the birdfeeder for our kiddo.

This was an outstanding evening of looking at the stars. Well worth the $ 8 admission fee. The presentation that was done was very interesting and the people who staffed the facility were helpful and knowledgeable.
This was a wonderful evening and I would recommend it to anyone interested in looking at the stars.

Great place and a must see while you are in Sunriver. I brought my own telescope at night and they allowed four of us in for free. We also stopped in earlier that day and looked at the sun… amazing, and that is free admission for all for sun viewing.

So freaking cool.
We came here while camping in the Crescent Lake area and it was well worth the hour long drive! There was a funny little presentation and then we were able to look through all the telescopes. There was a shocking number of people there on a Thursday night but we noticed that by 10 – 10:30 it thinned out quite a bit. Next time we will come later! We saw Saturn, Mars, many star clusters and nebula. Saturn blew me away. The staff was really helpful and low key. We had the two youngest kids there (6 and 3) and they bumped the telescopes a few times but the staff just put them back in place and made the kids feel welcome and unafraid. The telescopes can be intimidating but they make them friendly.
One of the staff was using a neat laser to point out a constellation and just by chance a shooting star happened right where he was pointing. It looked like it came out of the end of his laser and I actually thought it was some cool trick at first!
I would love to come back for nighttime viewing as well as solar viewing during the day. I was really impressed with this place and it really got our 4 kids excited about space.
The only tough thing is that its SO dark. They give everyone glow sticks to put on your shoe which helps a little to avoid bumping into people but good luck if you lose a kid! Designate a meet up place if you get lost or keep your people close :)

This place is amazing! This is my 3^rd time going here, and I am always wildly impressed with the knowledge of the staff, and how fun it is! It’s great for all ages!

What an amazing experience! This is a 2 hour program complete with a slide show talk, gazing through multiple different telescopes, a constellation tour (with the coolest laser pointer ever!) And presented by a bunch of employees who LOVE their job. The collective knowledge of these folks is stunning. No one was a PhD physicist so you won’t get too far chatting about the physics of stars but even your chemist husband will walk away awed, having learned something totally new. Oh, lest I forget the PHENOMENAL views! We saw Saturn, Mars, M13 (my fave!), M3, binary stars, a ring nebula and more stuff I can’t remember. Bring a sweatshirt and hat! And if your tush easily numbs, something to sit on because you’ll be sitting on a hard wooden bench for 30 min. «Worst/​hardest» thing about it? Having to stay up until 11pm (but duh, when else are you going to see stars???).

This is a must see for any age when visiting Sunriver. The staff is very knowledgable and the telescopes are amazing. There are usually 10 – 12 huge, high powered telescopes to view. Get there early to view the solar system. Usually a staff member does a laser light presentation of the constellations. On a clear night, the sky in Sunriver is amazing, being able to see the Milky Way with the bare eye.

Terrific non-​profit educational center with a fantastic observatory and educated, friendly staff.
Even on an August night, we braved the 40 degree temps to see the night sky through their many (donated) telescopes and hear all about the different configurations of stars, clusters, constellations and planets.
I didn’t know Jupiter had four moons! (Or if I did know, I’d forgotten)
The staff was super friendly, knowledgeable and helpful, and it was amazingly easy to maneuver a sizeable group of folks in complete darkness.
The Sun River Nature Center and Observatory was definitely one of the highlights of our trip to Sunriver.