SPIRIT Program School observatory

[SPIRIT]

Lela Powe ( powel@gcsd.us ) said: My name is Lela Powe.  I teach Gifted Education in Mississippi.  A coworker and I had an advocate who would come and speak to our students on various subjects.  He was a retired chemical engineer who had many hobbies, one of which was telescopes.  Before he died he donated a 10" Meade telescope to our Gifted Program.  My husband is in the process of trying to get the telescope set up and is encountering some problems with condition - he has found some leaves and spiderwebs inside the telescope.  He has taken the lenses out and cleaned them and is tightened reflecting mirror that was loose.  He is having difficulty getting the telescope to track - he can enter longitude, but can't get the latitude to set. So, we are also looking at maybe having to do some repair... Once we get the telescope up and running, we would like to build a small, inexpensive observatory for it so that once it is set up it will remain.  Please contact us with any ideas.  We would like to have our students write up an a proposal and present to the school board this fall (September 2018) We would possibly get the high school building class involved in the project. Any help, suggestions, ideas are needed and welcomed. Thank you, Lela Powe & Lisa McMillan

[Galen Gilmore]

What process did your husband use to clean the mirrors? The mirrors have special coatings that can be rubbed off if cleaned the wrong way, you also want to use distilled water as the minerals in tap water can cause some problems.