Anchorage Daily News

WASILLA -- At Burchell High School, teacher Tim Lundt piqued students' curiosity about science by having them scan craters on the moon, ogle the rings of Saturn and peer at the Orion nebula through a telescope housed in the state's only public observatory. Now he's trying to keep all that equipment from being relegated to so much stardust.

For the past 18 months, Lundt has been raising money to relocate the observatory from its current spot off the Parks Highway next to Burchell High on the north end of Wasilla. He wants to move it to a darker location next to the Mat-Su Career and Technical High School where he now teaches.

The equipment needs to be moved because light from surrounding businesses in Wasilla has rendered the telescope practically unusable for the past few years.

"From about 2005 on, the lights in Wasilla have been getting worse and worse, and the part of the night sky I could see was getting less and less," he said.

The observatory also has lacked Lundt, who switched from Burchell to the technical school in 2007. Lundt wrote the original grant for the observatory, which opened in 2001. He also has dedicated innumerable hours of volunteer work to make it available for students and the public at night. Since he left Burchell, the telescope has been largely idle.

"I just don't like things sitting," he said.

So far, Lundt has raised about $8,000. He needs just under a $1,000 more to get the observatory moved to its new location. He considers it a small amount compared to the experience it can provide students.

"There's nothing prettier than looking at the Orion nebula on a clear night, or zooming in on a single crater on the moon," he said. "It's that wow factor that kids get, that one little spark that's going to light their fire."

Moving the observatory is no easy feat. The 24-foot by 24-foot building includes a retractable steel roof that weighs 30,000 pounds, and is bolted into a concrete foundation. Transporting the 12-foot long telescope, in comparison, was a pinch, he said.

Lundt could set up the telescope without the surrounding observatory. But the building protects the telescope from the elements and possible vandalism, he said.

Raising money to move the telescope has been time-consuming, Lundt said. That's largely because agencies and groups he's tapped to fund the operation of the telescope don't give money for capital improvements like moving buildings. Instead he's mostly turned to local groups and individuals.

Some of the bigger contributors include the Palmer Lions Club, the VFW of Wasilla, IBEW Union Local 1547, Senior Care of Alaska and Udelhoven Oilfield System Service.

Lundt has no shortage of plans for the observatory once it's moved. He'll open it for students and the public, train other teachers on how to use it and hopes to have students from Mat-Su College use it for class credit. It also could become the basis for offering an astronomy class at the career and technical high school, an option not currently offered.

In addition, Lundt has plans to build a 10-foot by 12-foot shed to house another smaller telescope that is equipped with special filters for looking at the sun. He also has started lining up financial support for eventually adding solar panels and a wind turbine to make the observatory green powered.

Lundt said he has heard some criticism of the new location from those who say the area is too developed and will have the same light pollution problems as the previous spot. But, he said, the area is far darker at night than many people realize. There are subdivisions, but there are no streetlights in them, and the observatory spot is sheltered from the lights by the trees, he said. The other option to move farther out, say to the upper Susitna Valley, would limit the number of people with easy access to the telescope, he said.

Find S.J. Komarnitsky can be reached at www.adn.com/contact/skomarnitsky or 352-6714.

FOR MORE: For additional information about the observatory, contact Tim Lundt at 352-0433.

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