Bill Burnyeat

Bill Burnyeat, a native Vancouverite with a lifelong passion for the stars, was raised and educated locally. He was a daily newspaper reporter in the early 1980s, but changed hats to become the community astronomer at the HR MacMillan Space Centre.

For more than 20 years, he visited schools, communities, and clubs all over British Columbia to put on astronomy presentations. He also taught night school and continuing education for school districts in Vancouver, Burnaby, and West Vancouver in addition to the University of British Columbia, where a telescope-making course flourished briefly.

Since 2001, he has been the resident astronomer at the British Columbia Institute of Technology, where he operates the 75-seat planetarium star theatre. Each summer, he leads a community astronomy tour of the province, during which a large telescope is trucked around provincial parks and campers get a chance to see the stars in pristine outdoor conditions.

Burnyeat attended Langara College (VCC) and then UBC, where he majored in anthropology.

Previously taught: