The Galileoscope™: An IYA2009 Cornerstone Project

Are you all aware of the International Year of Astronomy 2009 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s first astronomical observations through a telescope?

The astronomical world is all atwitter!

And in celebration, the Galileoscope Project, a joint effort of the International Astronomical Union's Galileoscope task group and the American Astronomical Society's Telescope Kits & Optics Challenges working group, with educational support from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, born in 2006, is working hard to see that everyone who wants one, can get their hands on a working telescope of the type that Galileo himself used.

The Galileoscope™ is a high-quality, low-cost telescope kit. With this easy-to-assemble, 50-mm (2-inch) diameter, 25- to 50-power achromatic refractor, you can see the celestial wonders that Galileo Galilei first glimpsed 400 years ago and that still delight stargazers today. These include lunar craters and mountains, four moons circling Jupiter, the phases of Venus, Saturn's rings, and countless stars invisible to the unaided eye.

The Galileoscope costs US$15 each plus shipping.

You can order one here.