Engineers reassemble telescope more than a century old at Evergreen Aviation Space Museum
The telescope from the 1800s sat in storage at Linfield University for decades. It was donated to the school and was used as a teaching tool for students. Author: Devon Haskins Updated: 6:08 PM PDT July 7, 2021
MCMINNVILLE, Ore. A retired professor and an optical engineer reassembled a telescope more than a century old at the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum on Wednesday.
The telescope sat at Linfield University for decades before arriving at the museum last month.
Four years ago, staff at the Carlton Observatory at Evergreen were made aware of an antique telescope at Linfield University. The telescope, made in 1888, was donated to the school back in the 1890s and was used as a teaching tool for students. At the time, it was considered one of the top optical instruments west of the Mississippi.
Both he and the Stoller group believe the collaboration with Carlton Observatory will do big things for science education in Oregon. This creates something that not only serves Yamhill County but the whole region, Scott said. No pun intended, but all the stars aligned. Their passion is contagious. and their passion is going to get this thing done.
The project is ambitious and will involve about two years of fundraising through community support and grants. People can buy naming rights to stars to help fund the observatory.
It will take another year to construct the building, which was designed by Dangermond Keane Architecture in Portland pro bono. The firm specializes in education and science centers.
March 14, 2021
Carlton Observatory telescopes stolen
News-Register file photo##At a star party in Carlton in 2018, Kendall Stephens peers through the viewfinder of “BigBlue.”
Submitted photo##The missing trailer in which Big Blue and another telescope were stored.
Hundreds of children and adults had marveled at seeing Saturn and other planets through “Big Blue,” the main telescope for the planned Carlton Observatory.
Now the 15-inch Newtonian telescope is missing, along with another prized scope and the trailer in which they were stored.
Janet Juelke and her husband, Forrest Babcock, who are working toward building an observatory in Yamhill County since they moved to Carlton in 2013, discovered the trailer had been stolen March 11 or 12. The forest green, 20-foot-long Wells Cargo trailer had been stored at Juelke’s daughter’s house on Bald Peak Road, a rural site on the border of Yamhill and Washington counties.