Recently, I had a after-dinner weather chat with the some wonderful residents over in Orion, Illinois. Home of the Chargers!!! Roy and Jan Gustafason were part of that group. They approached me about a fascinating club specifically for stargazers out there.
The Popular Astronomy Club has in their possession a 12” computer-controlled telescope in a portable observatory that, once aligned to two stars, can find any object in the sky and accurately track that object. You can see the rings around Saturn, the moons of Jupiter, the red planet Mars, craters on the moon, double stars, galaxies, nebulae and much, much more through this telescope. Below are pictures of PACMO (Popular Astronomy Club Mobile Observatory) and the telescope.
As a public outreach program, PACMO is available at Niabi Zoo the third Saturday of the month through October, dusk until Midnight, as a free service to those that want to enjoy the beauty of the night sky. Its always a fun night and educational viewing at the same time!
To learn more about the Popular Astronomy Club go to their web site at http://www.pacastronomy.50megs.com/