Garage invention becomes first solar telescope for students

by MIKE MARTIN, UPI Science Correspondent

PASADENA, Calif. June 6 (UPI) -- A novel, first-of-its-kind telescope, invented by an idealistic amateur astronomer in his garage to make sunspot viewing -- a dangerous and tedious project -- simple enough for young students debuted today at the American Astronomical Society national meeting.

Manufactured by Somerville, Massachusetts-based Learning Technologies, the 6 lb. (3 kg) Sunspotter resembles a miniature painter's easel cradled in a semicircular base supported by 3 squat legs. Where viewers look up at the sun directly with a telescope, with the Sunspotter they look down at a magnified 3 inch image of the sun projected onto a viewing screen.

"Anyone can rig up a telescope with the right filters to view the sun," Steven Berr, a long-time science and astronomy educator, told UPI from Plymouth Meeting, Penn. "It's dangerous because you're looking directly at the sun, and you have to do it one person at a time. With the Sunspotter, an entire group of students can go out and view the sun indirectly and make an even better set of measurements since they are not squinting through a lens, but looking down at a viewing screen."

Solar observations are important, Berr said, because sunspots and solar flares create measurable effects, and sometimes havoc, on Earth. Both phenomena can be viewed in "glorious detail" with the Sunspotter.

In 1987, Daniel Janosik, Sr. of Hawley, Penn. conceived the Sunspotter, the first telescope designed specifically to view and analyze the one astronomical object available to students in daytime classes -- the sun.

Fashioning the initially-crude device from scrap plywood he purchased at a local lumberyard, Janosik ordered surplus filters and lenses from specialty suppliers and immediately began marketing the device to middle school, high school, and college science programs.

Shortly after Janosik's untimely death at the age of 50 in 1995, Jane Sadler, president of Learning Technologies, Inc., began a two-year odyssey to acquire the Sunspotter patent from Janosik's widow and improve upon a design that, while unsophisticated, had won fans nationwide through Janosik's one-man marketing and family-operated production.

"He would take it around to different schools and colleges," Dale Janosik-Russell, the inventor's widow, told United Press International from her home in Hawley. "He didn't do anything special to market it, just flyers. He sold it originally for $29.95. The price slowly increased to $55.00."

The Sunspotter came to Steven Berr's attention in a way he told UPI was "very unusual."

"I got this postcard in the mail," Berr explained. "All it said was, 'Would you like to use a Sunspotter?' It gave a very short description of the telescope and then said if you like it, keep it and mail payment. It was simple, direct, and trusting -- they weren't asking for any payment upfront."

Berr said the Sunspotter was "very crudely made but worked well." He introduced the device to Jane Sadler's husband Phil Sadler, director of Harvard University's Center for Astrophysics science education program.

"About ten years ago I took one to a workshop on science education," Berr said. "Phil Sadler was there and I told him he really needed to check it out." Sadler in turn introduced his wife Jane to the Sunspotter.

"The only way to view sunspots in the past was through a telescope with filters, which is always dangerous," Jane Sadler told UPI from Somerville, Mass. "I knew when I first saw the Sunspotter it was a really unique concept that could really take off with some improvements and some marketing dollars."

Sadler worked through legal and logistical details over two years and bought the original patent from Janosik's widow Dale, who has received a stream of royalties from the newly-remodeled Sunspotter ever since.

"We ran an ad in Astronomy Magazine back in January and we haven't been able to keep up with demand," Sadler told UPI. "We get orders from schools, planetariums, and education researchers all over."

The new unit, Sadler said, costs $300.00.

Jeff Lockwood, director of the astrobiology curriculum project for Cambridge, Mass.-based Technology Education Research Center, told UPI the Sunspotter has solved the critical dilemma facing astronomy educators -- how to get groups of students viewing astronomical objects during the day, when stars, moons, and planets are obscured by the one object that can be studied -- the sun.

"Unfortunately, we can't get many students back at night," Lockwood said. "If they're going to have any hands-on observations, it has to be during the day. That leaves the sun, which provides plenty of opportunities to view lots of different phenomena."

With the Sunspotter, Lockwood said students can monitor the changing position of giant sunspots, pinpoint and map the location of solar flares, and observe the gaseous eruptions that often disrupt telecommunications and satellites.

"It's an amazing little unit," Lockwood said. "It really gives sharp, clear images of the sun."

George and Jane Hastings, who co-instruct an astronomy course at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, "love the unit," George Hastings told UPI. "It's elegantly done. Learning Technologies took a backyard invention with a strong following and really created a little masterpiece."

Alan Gould, co-director of the Lawrence Hall Hands-On Universe astronomy education project at the University of California, Berkeley, concurred.

"It's really unique, really brilliant," Gould told UPI from Berkeley, Ca. "It's also a beautiful design -- you might almost call it a work of art."

Gould, who told UPI he owned Janosik's original Sunspotter eight years ago, received the latest version three weeks ago.

"In terms of ease of use, simplicity, and elegance it was beyond our expectations," Gould said.

The updated version blends sturdier construction and a tenfold more powerful lens with an architecturally artistic design, Gould explained.

Dale Janosik-Russell told UPI she has been pleased with the continued success of her late husband's dream.

"Daniel invented it and sold it because he had faith it would be a big thing someday, especially for students and classrooms that didn't have a lot of money and needed good science projects," Janosik said.

"This is definitely a triumphant garage invention story," Steven Berr concluded.