Have Telescope, Will Travel

In early August, Bloom’s physics and AP Chemistry instructor, Barry Latham, was awarded a $5,000 grant from the Toshiba America Foundation. The purpose of this grant is to start an astronomy program and purchase a telescope for student use. He purchased a computerized 11” Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope, manufactured by Celestron. It’s the largest telescope that they sell.

With it, Mr. Latham is able to see not only local objects with incredible detail (even in suburban lighting), like the Moon and planets, but most of the objects in the 40,000 object database, including nebulae, galaxies, and double stars.

“It [the telescope] GPS aligns itself and knows where it is, in latitude/longitude/altitude and time. Because of this alignment, it also knows what is below the horizon. It’s known as a GoTo telescope, which means that you only need to type in the object or star that you want to see and it will automatically move itself to the object. Because of its alignment feature, it won’t even point to objects that are below the horizon,” said Latham.

Although Latham will use it primarily for use at Bloom, he is also looking forward to working with other schools/groups in the Chicagoland area as an outreach program. If you’d like more information on how to get the 11” telescope to your school/group, please contact Mr. Latham at blatham@sd206.org.

Latham added, “we are planning on hosting ‘star parties’ on the last Friday of every month at Bloom High School. Tentatively, they will take place near the softball fields off of Dixie Highway. They will always be open to the public and free. We will have several smaller telescopes and binoculars for public use and visitors are encouraged to bring their own as well.”