Library to offer stargazing equipment for check-out
A grant from the Battelle Foundation has allowed the Corinne Costin Gibson Memorial Public Library in Port St. Joe to purchase high quality Orion telescopes, spotting scopes and binoculars that you can check out with a library card.
Each comes with a red filtered flashlight, instructions, a star chart and a guide to the night sky in our hemisphere. The library also has a digital microscope for check-out, for exploring worlds closer at hand.
“Two years ago, I met Skip Marlin, an amateur astronomer with a passion for the cosmos,” said librarian Mimi Minnick in a Facebook post. “He offered to give a talk at the library about the Dark Sky initiative, and that sparked enough local interest to organize quarterly star-gazing events for the public, with Skip’s awesome collection of telescopes.”
“… We hope these instruments spark your sense of wonder! Special thanks to Battelle’s community liaison, Roni Coppock for expanding opportunities for hands-on science in Gulf County.”
Meet the Editor
Wendy Weitzel, The Star’s digital editor, joined the news outlet in August 2021, as a reporter covering primarily Gulf County.
Prior to then, she interned for Oklahoma-based news wire service Gaylord News and for Oklahoma City-based online newspaper NonDoc.com during her four years at the University of Oklahoma, from which she graduated in May with degrees in online journalism and political science.
While at OU, Weitzel was selected as Carnegie-Knight News21 Investigative Fellow among 30 top journalism students from around the country. She also was senior editor managing a 12-person newsroom in coordination with Oklahoma Watch, a non-profit news organization in eastern Oklahoma.