Have You Checked Out a Telescope?: A Note from the Director

Posted by Susan C.

I took one of our telescopes available for checkout at the library home for the weekend, and although it was mostly cloudy every night, I did manage to find a few stars Saturday night. I lined one up nicely to view and started the focus at the lowest power, 24mm, then moved in on it, to the 8mm view. As I focused in, I realized it was not white as I expected, but green! I had heard that some stars are colored at our Star Party last fall where Don Ficken, from the St. Louis Astronomical Society, had come to introduce us to our new telescopes but had not actually seen the phenomena. I hope the sky clears up soon, as I'm interested in seeing the moon! This is a picture of the moon that I took with my smart phone last Fall through the telescope eyepiece.

Don also sent this information for those interested in checking out our library telescopes: 
Try this website for a nice schedule of times for moonrise and moonset in the St. Louis area:http://www.timeanddate.com/moon/usa/st-louis

Another good website for general purposes (including the Moon) is http://www.heavens-above.com/

 SIUE has star viewing parties on campus that are open to the public. For information on viewing sessions, please contact Dr. Tom Foster at tfoster@siue.edu or 618-650-3049.