“The best thing that we’re put here for’s to see;
The strongest thing that’s given us to see with’s
a telescope. Someone in every town
seems to me owes it to the town to keep one.
In Littleton it may as well be me.”
-Robert Frost, from “The Star-Splitter,” from the collection New Hampshire, 1923
Robert Frost would be delighted! The William A. Bachelder Library has a new item available to loan to the public: a fine telescope. A gift from an anonymous benefactor, this Orion Starblast 4.5 is a highly portable instrument designed for all aspiring astronomers to enjoy.
This model has been chosen for placement in thousands of libraries across the nation due to the combination of compact, lightweight design, simplicity of operation and robust optics. The New Hampshire Astronomical Society – recipient of the Out-of-This-World Award from Astronomy Magazine for outstanding public programming – began placing telescopes in local libraries for circulation to the public in 2008. Today, more than 130 New Hampshire libraries offer telescopes to patrons. Every one of these telescopes is a Starblast 4.5.
The Starblast is a “reflector” telescope of the kind invented by Sir Isaac Newton in 1668. Unlike earlier “refractor” scopes which employ finely crafted lenses to achieve magnification (like a spy glass or pair of binoculars,) a Newtonian reflector is a simple, open tube with a concave mirror at the bottom. This mirror reflects and focuses incoming light onto a small, flat mirror back at the top of the tube.
Positioned at a 45-degree angle to the tube, this second mirror sends the sharpened image to the viewer’s eyepiece, where the real magnification and final focusing takes place. The eyepiece is the only lens, and the viewer can switch eyepieces for greater or lesser magnification. The function could not be simpler.
As the Earth rotates on its axis, the night sky appears to spin overhead, making it necessary for a telescope to move in order to track an object and keep it in view. Tracking is easy with the Starblast. Instead of standing on a wobbly tripod with complicated controls, this scope sits on a “Dobsonian” mount, which is a rotating wooden disk or plate. Place it on a backyard table. Nudge the scope with your hands to track objects; up-and-down motion is also directly manual. You just push it where you want it. It could not be simpler.
What is there to see? Start with the moon. Not when it’s full and flooded with sunlight, but when its spectacular craters, mountain ranges and lava plains are illuminated and dramatized by the direct low-angle light of the sun from the lunar perspective. A “half moon” is ideal, but anything other than a full moon is good.
Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and its four largest moons, Saturn and its rings, and the outer planets all can be enjoyed with the Starblast, as well as stars, star clusters, and several deep-space nebulae. A star chart that comes with the scope can help you navigate the skies, and the telescope’s excellent viewfinder makes locating precise objects relatively easy. If you’re motivated and patient, you can find the Andromeda Galaxy, and view light that has been traveling for two-and-a-half million years to reach your eye.
This exciting addition to the Bachelder Library’s holdings is available to be borrowed for week-long loans on a first-come basis. Call 603 735-5076 (Bachelder Library where the telescope is stored) or 603 735-5333 (the Andover Library) and the two librarians can work together to reserve it for you. When you come to pick it up, a librarian will provide simple instructions to get you started. Fall and winter typically provide the driest atmospheres of the year, ideal for amateur astronomy. Enjoy your new hobby!