HAY RIVER - Although she is now taking a break to raise her children, Lisa Locke has perhaps one of the most unique careers of anyone from the NWT.

Lisa Locke – a radio astronomy engineer – has been offering a series of talks on astronomy at the public library in Hay River. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

Locke, who spent her childhood in Pine Point and now lives in Hay River, is a radio astronomy engineer.

Radio astronomy is different than optical astronomy, which is looking into the depths of space.

"It's the collection and detection of electromagnetic waves coming in from space," Locke explained.

She has been employed by several observatories to look after their instrumentation.

That work involves day-to-day maintenance and making new instruments to go on telescopes, such as equipment to detect a specific frequency.

Locke explained that electromagnetic waves tell scientists a lot – the chemical composition of stars, their temperatures, how fast they are moving towards us or away from us, and much more.

Locke, 36, said she has a sense of discovery from the work.

Many people are surprised and a little puzzled when they learn Locke is a radio astronomy engineer.

"When you tell them, they kind of give you a blank look," she said.

However, she refers to the movies 'Contact' and 'GoldenEye' to help explain things, since both films featured Puerto Rico's Arecibo Observatory, where she worked from 2000-2004.

She was first employed in the field as a summer student in 1996 at Owens Valley Observatory in California.

Since then she has also worked at radio observatories in West Virginia and New Mexico, along with Puerto Rico.

From 2005 to the end of 2006, Locke worked at the New Mexico's National Radio Astronomy Observatory. It is famed for its large array, one of the world's most important radio astronomy observatories.

When Locke and her husband James Locke had their first child, they moved to Hay River, where they own ArcTeck Computers.

The couple now has two children – two-year-old son Mitchell and 11-month-old daughter Sydney.

Locke said she is hoping to return to working as a radio astronomy engineer, but not right now.

"I'm more interested in getting the kids grounded," she said, noting she found Pine Point an ideal place in which to grow up. Locke said she was interested in science from the time she was very young.

However, her fascination with the stars really began in 1988, during a vacation at a relative's home in Cranbrook, B.C. She said that was the first time she really became aware of the stars and began reading astronomy books "like crazy."

Locke earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Alberta in 1997 and a master's degree in the field from South Africa's University of Cape Town in 2000.

She also learned a lot about radio astronomy while working as a student at the Canadian Space Agency in Ottawa.

Locke, who was born in Hay River, spent the first 12 years of her life in Pine Point, where her father was a carpenter at a mine.

When the mine started to close, her family moved to Edmonton, where she spent her teenaged years.

Her parents – Ken and Patricia Wray – moved back north to Hay River in 2000 and own KP Woodwright.

"It seems like home," Locke said of being back in Hay River, where she and her husband married in 2004.

This summer, Locke has offered talks on astronomy at NWT Centennial Library.

"I started them because I want to open science and astronomy mainly to kids," she said. "If you get their attention early enough, they really come alive."

Locke has no telescope of her own, but instead uses binoculars when looking skyward.

"I sit on the roof and look at the stars."