Looking toward the stars

Walter Sprague
Art and Culture Reporter
 
The Weston County Library is the second library in Wyoming to receive a telescope from the Island County Astronomical Society of Washington. Begun in 2003, the club exists to promote interest in astronomy and holds star parties in locations throughout the country. Daniel and Janet Pullen, of Oak Harbor, Washington, and members of the society, delivered an Orion Starblast telescope to the library on Friday, Dec. 3. The club’s library telescope program was started in 2008 with the New Hampshire Astronomical Society. 
According to its website icas-wa.org, the organization has delivered 95 telescopes to libraries across America. The library in Upton was the first
in Wyoming to receive one, with Newcastle being the second. Society members are hoping to place these easy-to-use scopes in libraries throughout the state soon.
“Under this program, library patrons can check out a telescope (just like checking out a book) from the library.” the website states.
Daniel said that the telescope is easy to use, perfect for beginning stargazers.
“Of course, there is some training needed,” Daniel said, “But it only takes a few minutes.”
Janet said that this particular telescope is a good beginner scope that doesn’t skimp on quality optics.
“It is a small and light scope,” she said, “It is a 4.5-inch reflector telescope with a Dobsonian mount.”
“It’s a great telescope for planetary and lunar observations. It may be small, but it will also resolve plenty of nebulae, open star clusters, and other objects that are much further away than the planets,” Daniel added.
The Pullens, while training the library staff, noted that a reflector uses a primary mirror instead of a lens that a refractor scope uses. The mirror reflects the light, focusing 4.5 inches of light-grab through the eyepiece. Dobsonian mounts allow the telescope to rotate around the alt/azimuth rotation style. That means it moves along two axes instead of the German equatorial mount, which only moves around one axis point while operating.
“The benefit for beginners with the alt/azimuth mount,” Janet said, “is the setup. An equatorial mount takes more knowledge and precision to set up. The alt/azimuth mount sets up immediately, without all
the fine-tuning to align it to polar north.”
Brenda Ayers, director of the Newcastle branch of Weston County Library, said she was thrilled with the gift from ICAS.
“This is cool,” Ayers said, “I just hope we can train people how to use it enough.” 
However, the Pullens gave the staff plenty of training and don’t feel this will be an issue.  According to the Pullens, Starblast is a fine beginning instrument with little to learn. It becomes easy to point to the desired astronomical star or nebula with a good red-dot finder scope. The focuser is an easy-to-use and smooth functioning part of the telescope.
“All you really have to learn apart from that,” Daniel said, “Is where the objects are in the sky. A good star chart will help with that.”
He also said it is essential to not use a white flashlight when observing. The white light constricts the iris in your eye and makes it hard to see objects afterward. 
“It can take around 20 minutes,” he said, “for your eyes to readjust so you can see the faint objects after that.”
But there is no worry over that issue. A red flashlight comes with the telescope when checked out. 
“The red light keeps your iris opened up,” Janet said, “This allows you to see the star chart well without reducing the amount of light received.”
With this new addition to the library, the staff is looking forward to a new area of education for the citizens of Weston County, Ayers said. One of her hopes is that the telescope will promote the idea of holding star parties where other people will bring their scopes and have a great time learning about what is in the heavens. And she said there is plenty of material available at the library to learn about astronomy.