CHICO — After nine months of being closed for repairs, the Chico Community Observatory in upper Bidwell Park will reopen at 9 p.m. Saturday.

Next to Horseshoe Lake, the observatory was closed for a series of repairs. Director Bill Koperwhats said in an email, “The crew has spent countless hours preparing the building and equipment for Saturday’s event.”

“Since the observatory is completely off-grid with no electricity, water, etc., we rely on the sun to charge batteries during the day, and then the inverter to convert the stored energy into standard 120V AC power to run the telescopes, lights, computers, etc. at night.

“Unfortunately we had a perfect storm of electrical and mechanical failures late last summer and needed to raise over $8,000 to replace both in addition to some other repairs,” Koperwhats wrote.

If there was a good time to reopen, it’s now because of what’s in the sky.

“In addition to almost ‘every’ planet being visible some time that night, the summertime sky offers some of the best viewing of the year,” he wrote, adding that Uranus and Neptune will be visible after midnight.

“Thanks to donations from local residents and the Chico Kiwanis Club, and the contribution of time and expertise from Chico Electric, we have a new AC inverter and batteries,” Koperwhats said.

The Chico Kiwanis Club helped launch the observatory in 2001.

He noted that the observatory has a new 501(c)3 nonprofit status as well.

“We hope that will help attract continuing funding in the future,” he noted.

Anyone who would like to contribute can do so through the North Valley Community Foundation. or can call Koperwhats at 961-3167.

The fund will help the observatory with upkeep and repairs to the computer hardware, telescopes and roof replacement, according to the foundation’s page on the observatory.

Normal hours are sunset to 11 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the summer. In the winter — after Oct. 1 — the days are the same but the hours are sunset to 9 p.m. The closing time is determined by the park’s open hours.

Many of the events will be posted on the observatory’s Facebook page

Koperwhats noted, “This will be a particularly good year to view the Persied meteor shower in mid August — peaking on Aug. 12-13 — and we will be organizing an evening out at the observatory.”

In addition, observatory docents will be at the Gateway Science Museum’s “Stay late with Gateway” event on the evening of Aug. 16 to talk about the observatory, and help people use telescopes.