School Receives Gift Telescope : Students Get New Outlook on Space

Satellites, planets and other celestial bodies will be more than pictures in a textbook for students at La Jolla Country Day School. Thursday night the private school unveiled the newest addition to its exclusive campus--an observatory equipped with a 16-inch telescope.

The school is one of only an estimated 10 primary or secondary schools--public and private--in the state to have such facilities.

“The number (of secondary schools with observatories) is almost nil. I told the school that the students were really, really lucky to have something like that. It’s something they usually don’t see until the university level,” said Michael Garcia, education spokesman for the California Institute of Technology’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. The laboratory, which conducts astronomical studies among other research, sent the school a letter of commendation after being informed that it had constructed the observatory.

The 7-foot-long Newtonian reflector telescope with equatorial mounting was donated to the school by Rancho Santa Fe resident Fritz Wrenn. A retired businessman, Wrenn said he had had the telescope--valued at about $10,000 secondhand--set up at his former home but decided to give it to the school when he moved last spring. The $100,000 structure to house the telescope was a gift from a student’s parents, who asked to remain anonymous.

“I was telling my teaching colleagues in Rhode Island (about the telescope) at Christmas. They thought it was pretty swank,” said Nancy Eckenroth, an eighth-grade earth science teacher at the school, located at 9490 Genesee Ave.

The sophisticated telescope is a type used by serious amateur stargazers and professional astronomers, said Andy Young, an adjunct associate professor of astronomy at San Diego State University.

“Boy, when I was a kid and amateur astronomer, I would have given my right arm and probably my left arm too to use something like that,” Young said. “I think it’s a real advantage for those kids.”

SDSU has two similar telescopes at Mt. Laguna, about 40 miles east of San Diego. One is used for research and the other is open to visitors. Two larger instruments are also located at the site.

Young has acted as a consultant to La Jolla Country Day School, appraising plans for the 252-square-foot, domed observatory and instructing faculty members on the use of the telescope. The school does not have an astronomy department, but science teachers say they plan to expand classes next fall to include night and weekend viewings.

“We’re just sort of barely getting our feet wet,” said science department chairman Billy Simms, adding that faculty members have a few things to learn about the instrument. “It’s like a big toy. Kids get most interested with demonstrations, something beyond just learning and memorizing. It’ll put some pizazz in the science program.”

Young said the telescope, built in 1978, is an excellent teaching instrument. It is especially good for viewing planets and for determining the luminosity of stars, he said. The observatory’s main limitations are coastal fog and light pollution from La Jolla.

Although only junior high and high school students will use the telescope for class work, all of the school’s 731 students and their families--the school goes from preschool through 12th grade--will have the opportunity to use the observatory, said school spokesman Jim Stewart. Parents can make appointments to use the telescope, under the supervision of teachers. The observatory will not be open to the public except by invitation.

Most of the students attending the school live in La Jolla or North County, Stewart said. Tuition ranges from $3,600 to $5,250 a year, he said. The 24-acre pastoral campus includes tennis courts and computer laboratories along with the new observatory.

The school plans an observatory dedication ceremony Feb. 15.