By Bob Strohm
bstrohm@wbcowqel.com
The Lowe-Volk Astronomy Club recently received a few new tools to view the celestial skies and is holding a naming contest for one of the instruments.
The Astronomy Club, which meets on the fourth Saturday of the month at dusk, received two telescopes, a Meade LX 200 with a 13.5-inch mirror and a smaller Meade 90-millimeter starter scope. Dan Everly, who heads up the club’s programs, noted that the Meade LX 200 would be able to magnify everything 117 times.
Everly explained how the Astronomy Club came into possession of the new telescope.
“I have been actually teaching astronomy out here for about 10 years, and last year I formally approached them about starting a club,” Everly said. “So I wrote a grant to the Hessenauer Foundation and got about $5,000, so we bought this scope from Colorado.”
Everly noted Meade helped out in an unexpected way.
“Once Meade found out about our program, they gave us a small telescope for the kids to work with,” Everly continued. “It is a 90-millimeter, real nice starter scope. It is for public outreach, so now we have quite a selection of scopes for people to use, or they can bring their own and we will help them set them up and use them.”
Currently, the Meade LX 200 is without a name and to rectify the situation the Lowe-Volk Astronomy Club is holding a contest to name the telescope. Everly noted that they hope to adopt a name by Halloween.
To enter the contest, just drop off the name submission at the Lowe-Volk Park Nature Center, or during one of the “Viewing the Night Sky” programs.