Does Your Library Loan Telescopes?

Amateur astronomers around the country, usually as members of clubs or state associations of clubs, are teaming up with manufacturers like Orion, Meade and Celestron and with science education advocacy groups, such as Cornerstones of Science, in New Hampshire, to provide funding to buy and donate telescopes to local libraries to be lent out, just like books.

Since libraries usually lack expertise in astronomy, amateur astronomers as members of clubs, provide that expertise in the form of user manuals and teaching for librarians. That usually ends up creating entire astronomy sections in libraries where they didn’t exist before.

Here’s how the Cornerstone and New Hampshire Astronomical Society’s (NHAS) STAR (Sharing Telescopes and Astronomical Resources) program works:

The telescopes chosen are usually simple, robust Dobsonians, like Meade LightBridge 5 inch or
Orion StarBlast 4.5 inch telescopes, in the $200 to $300 range, with simple, sturdy table top mounts and good eyepieces. The main thing is for the first-time user to get a quality viewing experience. And these types of telescopes are easy to pack around, easy to set up, and hard to break. The telescope comes with a simplified instruction booklet and laminated guides, with plenty of links to additional resources (such as books, websites and local astronomers and clubs) and most importantly, whenever possible, each library using a Cornerstones Telescope is connected to an amateur astronomer in the local astronomy club who volunteers to answer newbie questions and basically help steer them in the right direction.

Most participating libraries have only one telescope and most of those telescopes have waiting lists several weeks out, and massive traffic jams at major astronomical events such as Perseid Meteor shower, prompting some to buy a second or third telescope with their own funding. Almost none of these programs are publicized. They don’t need to be. Word of mouth itself creates enormous demand and librarians usually mention the telescopes to anyone checking out astronomical books.

The program is based on a successful program implemented by the NHAS which began with 2 telescopes in 2008 and has grown to over 60 local libraries in New Hampshire (2012). Cornerstones is grateful to the NHAS for its involvement and assistance with the STAR Program, which has added over 50 additional libraries in New Hampshire with loaner telescopes.