galileoscope, telescopes

A Low-cost Telescope For Astronomy Education

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The Galileoscope

My friend and colleague Rick Fienberg, who is vice president of Galileoscope, LLC , has a cool project he and colleague Doug Arion of Carthage College started for the International Year of Astronomy in 2009. It’s called the Galileoscope, and they have sold many, many of these easy-to-assemble telescopes at cost.

The Galileoscope Telescope kit. Courtesy Galilescope, LLC.
The Galileoscope Telescope kit. Courtesy Galilescope, LLC.

If you run a gift shop in a museum, planetarium, or other institution, you might want to think about stocking these useful and popular telescopes. When I first saw one of these scopes I was really impressed at how easy they were to put together and how well they allowed people to see things like lunar craters, the Jovian moons, the phases of Venus, and the Pleiades.  These guys are donating all their labor and are only charging to cover the costs of the project.

The Galileoscope comes as a kit that takes only a few minutes and no tools to assemble. It’s perfect for classroom activities, group projects, etc.

Interested? Read what Rick has to say about terms and prices.

“We sell the Galileoscope wholesale in cases of six at $25 per kit ($150 per case) plus shipping. Our dealers are selling Galileoscopes at retail prices between $49.95 and $59.95. Most are also leveraging the kit to sell other products, for example by bundling it with accessories such as tripods and star maps.
 
Galileoscopes are also useful in your education and outreach programs; we even provide economical and convenient training via our Galileoscope Workshops. Further support for the Galileoscope is provided through TeachingWithTelescopes.org, a website from the science educators at the U.S. National Optical Astronomy Observatory.
 
You can learn more about the Galileoscope at http://galileoscope.org and by looking over the attached flyer. If you can pay by credit card or PayPal, you can order from 1 to 11 cases online (http://galileoscope.org/shop/galileoscope-case-of-6/); to use another payment method, or to place a larger order, you can fill out our bulk-orders form (http://galileoscope.org/bulk-orders/), and we’ll send you a quote and invoice.
 
If you carry the Galileoscope in your shop, we will link to your website from our home page to refer customers your way. Please let me know if you have any questions, need more information, or want me to send you a sample Galileoscope kit. Thanks for your consideration.”
fulldome, fulldome shows, fulldome video, International Dark-Sky Association, light pollution, Loch Ness Productions

Losing the Dark?

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Light Pollution Video Released

All right!  I can finally talk about this project Loch Ness Productions has been working on with the International Dark-Sky Association.  It’s a video called Losing the Dark and it went live today for download today!  It tells the story of light pollution and how we can work together to mitigate it, all in 6.5 minutes. If you run a domed theater (either fulldome or classic), there’s a file for you!  Just visit here at the Loch Ness Productions page for the show to get the version you need (or arrange to get frames if your theater needs very high-resolution frames).

Educators, outreach professionals and others who want to show this program in their classrooms and other venues can download a flat-screen version at the IDA’s Losing the Dark page.

It’s been an amazing project to produce. We worked with visualizers, animators, and photographers from around the world, and both Mark and I did some photography for the show as well. I also wrote the script and supplied the narration for the show, and worked closely with the International Dark-Sky Association on the science behind the script. Mark C. Petersen did the soundtrack and provided his GEODESIUM space music, supplied some time-lapse and still photography, and did the final compositing of the video.

Our support team was huge: I can’t thank Scott Kardel, Dr. Connie Walker, and the members of the IDA Education committee enough for their help and support. We also thank Starmap and the Fred Maytag Family Foundation for their generous support of the project. The International Planetarium Society supplied a seed grant to start off the project, and IDA members have also helped underwrite the costs of production.

Help spread the news about mitigating light pollution and using light only where it’s needed. Otherwise, we are, as the show says, losing the dark of night at the speed of light.

 

 

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