Press Release
Carbon County Star Parties will be holding a raffle for a brand new Celestron Cosmos FirstScope (a tabletop 76mm (3 inch) Newtonian Reflector with a 300mm (12 inch) focal length) designed to grab your child’s interest in astronomy.
Even though this is a “kids scope,” it is a professionally made telescope by the Celestron telescope company which offers awesome views of the moon, planets, star clusters and some nebulae for the adults who are still young at heart.
Instead of being painted the typical black, white or blue, the OTA (tube) is painted with a beautiful scene of a nebula. It comes with a red-dot finder, which is much easier to use than the typical finder scope, dust cap, 10mm eyepiece, instructions and a cosmos calendar. It is 99% assembled, you’ll just have to put the red-dot finder on it. It is designed after a small Dobsonian (dob) telescope with an easy to rotate base and lock knob as well. It only weighs 4.3 pounds which makes it easy for your child to carry and makes it the perfect “grab-n-go” telescope for adults as well.
Raffle tickets are $.50 each and can be purchased at the Solar and Star Parties. Solar Parties are at the Price Peace Garden from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Star Parties are on top of Wood Hill from 6 p.m. to at least 10 p.m. Party dates are as follows:
Solar Party: Saturday, July 11
Star Party: Saturday, July 18
Solar Party: Saturday, August 8
Star Party: Saturday, August 15
The drawing will be held the night of August 15 at 8:30 p.m. at the Star Party up on top of Wood Hill (dates are dependent on weather conditions and may be changed). August 15 is the new moon so there will be no moon. The sky will be super dark which is best for viewing celestial items in space. You do not need to be present to win but it would be nice if you were and then you can stay and look at everything in the solar system that night. All proceeds will go to help raise money for a Hydrogen-Alpha Telescope (Solar Scope) for the club.