> Free telescopes and star gazing at SFU

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Contact:
Howard Trottier, 778.782.4465 (Physics Department), howard_trottier@sfu.ca
Sophie Lavieri, 778.782.3537, slavieri@sfu.ca
Carol Thorbes, PAMR, 778.782.3035, cthorbes@sfu.ca

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Two Simon Fraser University scientists expect that a free astronomy program aimed at school children will leave many participants starry-eyed this fall.

The program teaches participants how to operate a telescope and enables them to acquire one for free. During a test run this past March to June, it drew more than 1,100 children from more than 30 Lower Mainland schools.

SFU chemist Sophie Lavieri and physicist Howard Trottier are the brains behind the telescope training workshops and associated starry night parties at the Burnaby campus. The duo was inspired by the fact that 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy.

“This fall, Jupiter will be on beautiful display through the telescope. It’s the biggest planet in the solar system and will look like the headlights of a plane coming in for a landing,” says Trottier. The seasoned stargazer is about to buy his second telescope.

Schools that send kindergarten to Grade 12 children to the workshops get a free telescope. If the children bring along family members, they’re all invited to a monthly outdoor starry night party. Children and family members who attend the workshop and four starry night parties automatically get their own telescope.

The hands-on workshops, 10:30 a.m. to noon, every Thursday beginning Sept. 24 until January will take place at various facilities around the Burnaby campus. Trained volunteers will help participants learn how to point a telescope and magnify viewed objects in preparation for using the telescopes at starry night parties around the Terry Fox statue.

“The most frustrating thing about learning to use a telescope,” says Trottier, “is knowing how to point it and what magnification to use so you can figure out what you’re looking at. It’s like looking at something totally foreign through a key hole.”

Lavieri, a scientist recognized for her imaginative teaching of children, and Trottier have raised $7,500 to finance the program. The Vancouver chapter of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC), SFU’s physics department, Science in Action, a school program started by Lavieri to turn children onto to science, and individual donors contributed the funding.

Lavieri and Trottier are buying high-quality amateur telescopes with the money for their program. The telescopes include a 60-mm objective lens, finderscope, tripod and two eyepieces.

Lavieri and Trottier have given away 40 of 101 telescopes they’ve bought so far from the Vancouver Telescope Centre for a fraction of their retail value. Twelve of the telescopes have gone to school children and their families. The other giveaways reside in school classrooms.

Contact maillist@sfu.ca - to subscribe email maillist@sfu.ca and make sure the subject line is subscribe starry-nights to a mailing list that notifies schools about upcoming telescope workshops and starry night parties.

—30— (electronic photo files available on request)

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