Telescope purchased for Science Department
The Foundation recently awarded a grant of $1273.63 to purchase a Meade 8 inch Schmidt-Newtonian telescope, LPI camera, and a set of eyepieces and filters for the Science Department at WCS. On April 11th, Jon Krawiec organized a night of observation, open to all students and to the public, to show some of the scope’s capabilities. Foundation President Tim Peach attended along with several students, teachers and parents. Mr. Krawiec demonstrated how a laptop computer controls the telescope and has a screen with a map of the stars, planets, and other celestial objects. With a click on an object, the scope will roughly center on that object. Then, using a hand controller, the scope can be adjusted to put the object in the dead-center. The scope then stays fixed on the object and tracks it until another object is selected. All those attending were able to view several objects through the eyepiece and by the LPI camera which attaches to the telescope and puts an image on the computer. During the observation, Mr. Krawiec showed everyone how to find the North Star (Polaris) using the pointer stars in the constellation Ursa Major (Big Dipper). The North Star is found on the end of Ursa Minor (Little Dipper) and is used to help the scope set its location. They looked at Jupiter and were able to see four of its moons. Observers were even able to see Saturn and its rings. Lastly they looked at the surface of the moon. Because it was in a waxing crescent phase, they were able to look at it without any filters and see the craters. The constellations of Orion, Cassiopeia and Gemini were also pointed out that night. Hopefully Mr. Krawiec will have the scope out again this spring and will open it to the public, but it is weather dependent and spring in central NY produces few clear nights! Future plans include a project with students using the telescope to get pictures then creating a PowerPoint presentation of that celestial object. |
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