How pigeons almost stopped the restoration project

When the Hector J Robinson observatory was being renovated by the FAAC club, they ran into a problem. It was related to bird droppings. Bird droppings had accumulated inside, even on the mirrors of the two old telescopes left inside, with their covers mysteriously left off by someone years ago.

When I talked with Dr. Timothy Dey about the restoration project he told me that there had been some fear that the droppings inside the observatory were pigeon droppings. Pigeon droppings have been known to make people sick at times. You can "google" and research pigeon droppings on the internet and find out that sometimes when a large amounts are anywhere, even in a pile next to a building they can contain viruses or other micro-organisms and this can be picked up and when people breath these they may become ill.

SMALL DIGRESSION - About waste in the ecosystem.
Of course in nature, usually remains and droppings just end up as natural fertilizer over time and are broken down by the soil worms, and other micro-organisms. Animal waste is just a normal part of life, but when it accumulates it can cause problems - especially outside the natural environmental cycle Inside an enclosed building with a cement floor, there is no natural ecosystem to clean up the droppings and create new soil.

TO CONTINUE OUR STORY
There's the possibility that a hazmat procedure would have to happen in the cleanup and that would cost a lot of money and could have be a pretty big expensive hurdle. It turned out that they were sparrow droppings and although I'm sure they were yukky (is that the proper term), it apparently was less of a threat and not as serious a need for hazmat recovery. The observatory was cleaned up and a specialist with a license checked it out anyway. Thanks to good old fashioned networking by Dr. Dey.

PALOMAR - PIGEONS, PIGEONS EVERYWHERE
Ironically one of the largest observatories in the world is the Palomar Observatory in California, which is home to the 200 inch Hubble Telescope. According to Wikipedia:

The word palomar is from the Spanish language, dating back from the time of Spanish California, and means pigeon house (in the same sense as henhouse). The name may be in reference to the large shoals of pigeons that can be seen during the spring and autumn months atop Palomar Mountain or reminiscent of an old pigeon-raising facility built there by the Spaniards.

The pigeons almost had their revenge on our small observatory, but the school and FAAC club restored it anyway.