The Weathersfield Proctor Library (WPL) works jointly with the Southern Vermont Astronomy Group (SoVerA) and the Reading (VT) Public Library to encourage library patrons and the general public to become interested in amateur astronomy.
The WPL has at present four telescopes, two of which are available for loan to WPL patrons. These are a small reflecting telescope which affords actual eyesight viewing of objects in the night sky, and a small smart telescope, which allows viewing by capturing digital images and sending them to an iPad or a patron’s personal smart phone. Each scope has its advantages.
The Orion StarBlast can be taken out by patrons for home use.
The reflector is an Orion StarBlast 4.5 with an 8 to 24 millemeter Zoom eyepiece. This allows for magnification of 8x with a wide-angle view for observing deep sky objects like galaxies, star clusters, and nebulae, and as much as 56x for less spread out objects, like planets and the moon. With it is a planisphere for finding objects in the night sky and a filter for reducing the amount of light coming when viewing the moon, which can be uncomfortably bright when viewed with magnification. The biggest strength of the reflector is that it allows you see with your own eye an object millions of miles away, and to see it in real time. You and Jupiter are together and you are seeing it mitigated only by the time it took for light reflected from it to travel to your eye. It is real and you are seeing it. This telescope was donated to the WPL by SoVerA.
The Seestar S30 can be taken out by patrons for home use after a brief training.
The small smart telescope is a Seestar S30. This is essentially a combination of a digital camera, a telescope, and small computer with a database of 4000 different things to view in the night sky, combined with Bluetooth technology to transfer images directly to your phone. The strength of the smart scope is that it knows where thousands of things are and can find them on its own (with a bit of a nudge from you now and then), and unlike your eye, it can accumulate light. When a photon hits your eye, it winks out, and the next one hits and also vanishes, and so on. The smart telescope, however, stores images of all of those photons, and essentially stacks them. The effect is that by accumulating faint light for ten or twenty minutes, it can provide a far brighter and more detailed image than you could ever see with your eyeball unless you were looking through an enormous telescope like those at the Paris Observatory or Palomar. With a telescope the size of a brick and ten minutes, you are getting images that ten years ago you had to travel thousands of miles to see. This telescope was a gift to the WPL from the Friends of the Weathersfield Proctor Library.
The Coronado is used at solar events by experienced amateur astronomers. It is not available to general library patrons.
The WPL also houses a dedicated solar telescope, which it obtained through the Jay M. Passachoff Solar Eclipse Mini-Grants Program, an American Astronomical Society project funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation to encourage community viewing of the April 8, 2024 solar eclipse. 25 grants of up to $5000 were awarded. We joined with SoVerA and the Reading VT Public Library to apply for funding to purchase a solar telescope and host a solar eclipse viewing party in Perkinsville. Over 150 groups applied for the grants, and we were lucky enough to receive one. We purchased a Coronado 70 SolarMaxx III Solar Telescope Kit with a SolarQuest tripod and motorized mount, and additional eyepieces, which cost a total of $4,819.90. This telescope is not available for loan to the general public, but it appears at several events each year, and thousands of people have been able to safely observe the sun through it.
The Unistellar is used at night observing events by experienced amateur astronomers. It is not available to general library patrons.
Our fourth telescope is a more sophisticated smart telescope which we recently got through another competitive grant application process. It is a Unistellar Equinox scope. Because it is an expensive piece of equipment, it is not available for loan to patrons, but like the SolarMaxx, it will be making appearances at star parties. It has the capability of broadcasting its images to as many as ten individual smart phones at a time, so star party participants will be able to go home with their own astrophotography images.
WPL hosts star parties at Hoisington Field in Perkinsville on an unpredictable timetable based on when we hope that the skies will be clear and there will be interesting stellar objects on display. These gatherings are free and open to the public at large. You can look for notices on Front Porch Forum.
A streaming service available using your Weathersfield Proctor Library card. Click to learn more!
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