Connecting with the cosmos

Rich Rawlinson is one happy man.

He was happy less than a year ago when a mere slab of cement finally graced a patch of sod in the middle of Andros Karperos Middle School’s campus. But now, on that slab donated by the Yuba City Unified School District, sits a large, white scientific wonder.

That wonder resembles an oversized R2-D2 of “Star Wars.” But it’s really a high-tech observatory that allows students and the public to view and take pictures of planets, stars, moons and more other-worldly bodies.

“I went to the University of Kentucky, and every Wednesday, they had their observatory open to the public, and my brother and I were usually the only ones there,” said Rawlinson, a 17-year veteran of the school. “The student astronomers befriended us ... and I still remember the first time I saw Saturn and I could actually see the rings.”

Rawlinson wants students, their parents and the public to have that opportunity, with more sophisticated equipment. He introduced the finished, $20,000 product to a handful of supporters and some AK students Friday night as dusk settled on Yuba City.

“There are so many people to thank who made this possible,” he told the group. “I really wanted this done, and of course, with so many hoops to jump through, it’s not easy to get something like this on a school campus.”

Rawlinson credited former AK principal Bill Zeller with helping, current principal Lee McPeak for supporting him, former district Trustee Mary Chin and many others, including his wife.

“It’s amazing the support that came out of the community,” he said Wednesday. “More than half of the money came from two anonymous donors.”

The observatory was made possible with private funds and fundraising. Rawlinson worked with Vice Principal Marty Ofenham, who personally contacted businesses and other entities to ask for donations. The Yuba City Education Foundation donated $3,000, he said.

Eighth-grader Baljinder Sandher came out last week to look through the smaller of two telescopes and noted that the edge of the moon looked like “bubbly cheese.”

Fellow eighth-grader Sumit Kumar agreed, saying he had seen it before, but through a smaller telescope.

Rawlinson said the observatory, with its domed roof and large, professional-grade telescopes, would also be available online to all students in the district.

He said it is the only one of its kind in California located on a school campus.

“Astronomers are physicists, mathematicians, astronauts; these kids could become any one of these, and it’s pretty cool to think that one of them could come from AK,” Rawlinson said.

Rawlinson said he will connect a portable viewing screen and computerized equipment to the observatory. Students will get hands-on experience by telling the computer coordinates and searching for galaxies, supernovas and the like.

They will be part of an International Supernova Search, in which they are assigned an area of sky to look for supernovas. He also hopes to train high school students to become “observatory docents,” so they can help younger students learn about galaxies, planets, supernovas and globular clusters.

“I’m really hoping to get three groups out here, maybe two or three times a month during the summer, to teach middle school kids the science of it all,” he said.

If it was possible, Rawlinson’s eyes sparkled just slightly more than Venus while he talked.

Appeal-Democrat reporter Kymm Mann can be reached at 749-4707 or kmann@appealdemocrat.com