Placerville's Community Observatory celebrated two decades of free stargazing Sunday, Sept. 20, with a public telescope night timed to NASA's International Observe the Moon Night weekend.

The observatory, built by the Cameron Park Rotary Club and staffed entirely by volunteers, drew visitors to its site adjacent to Folsom Lake College's El Dorado Center for its 20th anniversary, KCRA 3 reported.

Randy Hodges, a longtime volunteer who coordinates the observatory's programs, told KCRA 3 the facility welcomes about 12,000 visitors a year. He said one of the biggest rewards comes when someone peers through a telescope and sees Saturn or the moon up close for the first time.

"That's what energized us, is to see that," Hodges said.

The observatory opened in 2006 as a centennial project for the Cameron Park Rotary Club, which marked Rotary International's 100th anniversary. Club members raised roughly $88,000 and secured grants and donated materials to cover the $155,000 project, logging nearly 10,000 volunteer hours during construction, according to the club's history.

The original 900-square-foot domed building houses a retractable roof and two 14-inch reflecting telescopes. Aerojet Rocketdyne donated one of those scopes, valued at $10,000. A 17-inch reflector has since been added, according to the observatory's website.

In 2011, the club added the G. Arthur Cort Sky Theater, where visitors sit in reclined seating outdoors and follow guided constellation tours led by volunteer docents. The Community Observatory Foundation became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 2019.

The facility hit its 100,000th visitor in October 2018. Repeat visitor Ari Swanson, who attended the Sept. 20 celebration, told KCRA 3 the observatory offers a chance to step away from daily life and connect with nature and the night sky.

Admission is always free. The college charges $2 for parking.

International Observe the Moon Night, a NASA-supported event held annually since 2010, falls each autumn around the moon's first-quarter phase. Shadows along the boundary between lunar day and night make craters and rugged terrain stand out through a telescope, according to EarthSky.

The Community Observatory is open Friday and Saturday nights, with summer hours of 9–11 p.m. and winter hours of 7:30–9:30 p.m. Free solar viewing is offered the first Saturday of each month from 10 a.m. to noon. The next solar viewing falls Saturday, Oct. 3. The address is 6699 Campus Drive, Placerville.