Putting Telescopes in Schools
Just a short note to update all on my continuing efforts to enhance
astronomy education in Okaloosa County, Florida. When schools in Florida, and most
other places, want to expose their students to viewing the planets, moon and
even deep space objects like the Orion Nebula with a telescope, they
generally have no other option than to call in the local astronomy club – if
there is one.
In an effort to change that, I see to empower the schools themselves by (1)
giving their teachers a constant level of training and information in basic
astronomy (2) guide the District in equipment purchases for a small number
of schools. In Okaloosa’s case, that’s 8 schools and (3) train the teachers
how to use the equipment and merge it with their new-found knowledge of
astronomy. We got the District’s equipment in December, and for the last
four months I have been training teachers. It paid off on the night of
April 14th behind Plew Elementary. No other school district in the
state of Florida has this capability I would guess, not even Brevard
County, home of NASA. But Okaloosa does.
The equipment I recommended to the schools was the iOptron Mini Tower mount and the iOptron 152mm Maksutov Cassegrain telescope. Later we replaced the stock 1.25″ diagonals and eyepieces with OPT 2″ star diagonals and Orion 25mm eyepieces. This resulted in much improved viewing by all.
To see the latest story on the “teacher astronomers” of Okaloosa County at their first star gaze click HERE
In December, 2009 all teachers assembled at the Okaloosa School District offices where I had them unpack and slowly assemble their mounts and then attach the Maksutovs, or “Maks” as we call them. To see the writeup and pictures of that day click HERE.
Bob Gaskin
Emerald Coast Astronomy