The telescope loan program runs from September throughout the school year! 

The lending period is a default of two weeks!

Using one of our telescopes??  Post pictures of you using the telescope AND images taken with the telescope to social media.  I would love it if you can use the hashtags #MMSDPlanetarium and #MMSDTelescopes

Already borrowed a scope?   Give us a review on Google!

These photos were taken with a smartphone looking through the eyepiece of one of our loaner telescopes.  (click any image to see its large version)

NASA has a great resource to learn how to do this in their digital PDF book, "A Guide to Smartphone Astrophotography". 

There are great mounts to hold your smartphone on the telescope's eyepiece.   The BBC's "Sky at Night" magazine has a 2023 rating page here.

Example of a smartphone mount for a telescope

TELESCOPES in the LOAN PROGRAM:

MOST of our telescopes are simple, manually pointed, Newtonian telescopes... which are easy to use! 

NEW for 2025-26 are two electronically assisted astronomy scopes... these require training on your own and use of your own smart device (phone or tablet) to connect and control the scope.  These scopes integrate a camera and can thus take images of the deep sky objects.

Our manually pointed scopes include 4.5" tabletop newtonians (very portable) as well as 6" and 8" Dobsonians (shown below).  We can teach you how to use these simple scopes in about 5-10 minutes at the curb during your pickup session. 

We also have two more advanced telescopes of 8" aperture that were donated to us to add to our lending library of scopes.  You will have to teach yourself how to use these more complicated telescopes (An old model Meade LX200 and a Celestron CPC8).

THE BASICS... Make a reservation. 

We will schedule your VPM HS Welcome Center curbside pickup and dropoff times in advance.

When you pick up, we will ask you if you need a quick demonstration of how to use the telescope. 

Showing you how to use the Dobsonian telescope is quick and typically only takes 5-10 minutes. 

Then you take the telescope home and have it for up to two weeks. 

TELESCOPE DIMENSIONS: 

All of our basic loaner telescopes are Newtonian designs.  The StarBlaster is a small, lightweight, tabletop size telescope.

The 6" and 8" Dobsonians are larger telescopes, but they can fit in a smaller car with one of the back seats flipped down.  The images above are roughly to scale.

Please confirm that your car's backseat or trunk is large enough to fit the telescope.

• 4.5" Orion StarBlaster Tabletop:    28” x 16” x 16”              Total Weight:  ~ 15 pounds
• 6" Dobsonians:    ~ 53” x 19” x 19”              Total Weight:  ~ 35 pounds
• 8" Dobsonians:    ~ 53" x 20" x 20"              Total Weight:  ~ 41 pounds

OTHER TELESCOPES AVAILABLE:  We have been fortunate to have a number of telescopes donated to the telescope loaner program.  We offer these telescopes as a way to try different sizes, styles, and complexity of telescopes, and to support your decision making before you purchase a telescope of your own. NOTE:  These telescopes ARE NOT for beginners!  They require independent training and experience, and are not as easy to transport. They include a Meade 8" LX200 Classic Schmidt-Cassegrain (manual) and a Celestron CPC 8" Goto Schmidt-Cassegrain (manual).   Additionally, we have added a SeeStar 30 and an eVscope model 1 to our loaner program, these require use of your own smart device and installation of apps/software.  You can find the Unistellar eVscope user guide here.  The SeeStar you can self train at... coming soon.

FEES for Telescope Loan/Rental:

For the 4.5", 6" and 8" dobsonian manual telescopes and the LX200 and Celestron CPC8...

 

RESIDENTS:                  City of Madison Residents and Madison Teachers...  NO CHARGE!

NON-Residents:         $10.00 per loan period

 

FEES for eVscope (user manual) and SeeStar Electronically Assisted Astronomy Telescopes Loan/Rental:

These scopes require you to self-train and install software or apps on your own device in order to use them.

RESIDENTS:                  City of Madison Residents and Madison Teachers...  $20 per loan period

NON-Residents:         $30.00 per loan period

 

MAKE A RESERVATION:

Complete the Telescope Loan Reservation Request Form. 

Make the request for when you want the telescope and if necessary we will contact you to modify the timing.

We will respond to your request with a confirmation e-mail.

Before coming to pick up the telescope, please watch this Telescope Basics Youtube video to learn where to park, how to use the telescope, and how to carry and transport your telescope.

PICKUP and DROPOFF of a TELESCOPE: 

When picking up or dropping off a telescope, please pull up to the Vel Phillips Memorial HS Welcome Center.  This is located at the large silver awning with solar panels on the Mineral Point road side of the building. 

PLEASE... text me at (608) 770-7367 as you depart for the planetarium and text again upon your arrival at the curb.  Do this for both pickup and drop off as I will meet you at the curb with the scope on a cart so that you do not have to enter the building. 

EXCEPTION... if you want a quick training on telescope use, and the weather is not good, include this in your text and we can meet at the door, you can come in for the 5-10 minutes it takes to walk your through telescope use and then we can load you up and send you on your way.

There can be multiple telescope pickup and drop offs at nearly the same time, so thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

If you have questions, contact us:  planetarium@mmsd.org.

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OBSERVING RESOURCES:

STAR CHARTS:

Maps of the sky are very helpful for observing. Skymaps.com has an excellent star chart which is available for free year-round and is suitable for printing. To print a map of the sky in Madison, Wisconsin right now, or at a time not shown on our star chart above, try Heavens-Above's Interactive Star Chart.

SMARTPHONE APPS: 

There are many great apps to help you find things in the sky, or getting more information about them, my favorite is SkySafari. It's available for iOS and Android and has many versions from very affordable/free to more full featured versions at higher cost.

Jupiter: To figure out which moons you are seeing, check out this web interface, or try Sky & Telescope's iOS mobile app called JupiterMoons. 

Saturn: To figure out which moons you are seeing, check out this web simulation, or try Sky & Telescope's iOS mobile app called SaturnMoons.

Moon: For observing the Moon in a telescope, it's nice to have a map. An excellent FREE iOS app to consider is Moon Globe. Moon Atlas 3D is a good option for Android users. Timeanddate.com has a nice Moonrise/Moonset Calendar system.

WEATHER:

Favorite sources for predicting cloud cover are Weather Underground, the Clear Sky Chart, and Clear Outside. (These links are set for Madison, but you can set those sites for any location. Mobile apps are also available.)

JOIN AN ASTRONOMY CLUB:

The Madison Astronomical Society (MAS) holds monthly meetings with speakers on various astronomy topics. Their members range from beginners to advanced amateurs who are doing astronomical research. They are open to beginners and welcome people to come to their meetings as guests.  Thinking about buying your own telescope?  Check out this recording of their special meeting on just that subject.