Return to previous page

St. Louis Library Telescope Program

Exclusive Checkout Program for Educators

Reserve a telescope for your classroom for a specific week!

Introduction

The St. Louis Library Telescope "Educator Program" is designed with educators in mind.  In this pilot program, eighteen telescopes have been set aside for exclusive checkout out by K-12 educators.  The telescopes can be checked out for a specific week.  Both day-time and night time telescope are available.

The St. Louis Library Telescope "Educator Program" offers two types of programs:

1) Night-time telescope (for viewing planets and stars)

In addition to the 135 Orion StarBlast 4.5" Reflector telescopes available to the general public for night-time viewing, the St. Louis program has set aside an additional five night-time telescopes for exclusive checkout by K-12 educators.  The exclusive checkout program allows educators to reserve the telescope for a specific week and know the telescope will be availalble.  The following libraries are participating in this pilot program:

Participating libraries:

• St. Louis Public Libraryscopes)
• St. Louis County Library (2 telescopes)
• St. Charles City-County Library (1 telescope)

 2) Daytime telescope (for safe viewing of the Sun)

In order to make "day-time" telescopes available to educators, thirteen SunSpotter Solar Telescopes were added to the St. Louis Telescope Program just in time for the historic August 21, 2017 Total Solar Eclipse.  

“Sunspotter” telescopes are instru“Sunspotter” telescopes are instruments used exclusively for viewing the Sun. They employ a small refracting telescope and a set of mirrors to project an image of the Sun safely, onto a white screen within the telescope. Several persons can view the image at a time. The telescopes display solar surface features such as sunspots on any clear day. They will also show the progress of the Moon’s shadow on the Sun during the partial eclipse phases on August 21. The eclipse path enters the United States in Oregon, continues through several states including Missouri and Illinois, and exits the country in South Carolina before ending over the Atlantic Ocean. the country in South Carolina before ending over the Atlantic Ocean.

Similar to the general public checkout program, the educator telescope checkout period is seven days. Educators must be age eighteen-years or older with a valid library card and have identification proving they are actively employed as an educator in a public, private or parochial school.   An information package provided with each telescope contains directions about the operation of the instrument as well as instructions for several activities related to the Sun, solar eclipses and the night sky.

Participating libraries:

• St. Louis County Library (4 telescopes) **
• St. Louis Public Library (3 telescopes) **\
• University City Public Library (1 telescope)
• Ferguson Public Library (1 telescopes) **
• St. Charles City-County Library (1 telescope) **
• Jefferson County Library (1 telescopes) **
• De Soto Public Library (1 telescope) **
• Festus Public Library (1 telescopes) **