BY: CAROLINE ROLF
Born with cataracts and undergoing surgery to remove the lenses from his eyes, Tim Doucette was pronounced legally blind. Although discouraged as a child because of his condition, he refused to give up on his passion for astronomy. With the surgery that widened his pupils, Doucette can only make out shapes in the bright daylight, but at night his vision becomes extraordinary.
Doucette discovered his unique skill at an observatory with the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. When he looked through a telescope, he said he could see what looked like a doughnut and a couple of stars in the middle. The man from the Astronomical Society said he shouldn’t be able to see that clearly out of that telescope and Doucette said, “That’s sort of where things started to snowball.”
His love for the night sky led him to open the Deep Sky Eye Observatory in Yarmouth Country, Nova Scotia. His mission is to take others on a journey of the cosmos, provide a better understanding of the universe and to inspire people to pursue their dreams. Doucette is a reminder that a disability can really be a gift.
“I seem to discover something new almost every single time that I look up at the sky, or that I’m teaching someone about the new sky, there’s always new things to look at.”
Image sourcing: youtube.com
