By Thomas Sellers Jr.
Summer vacation is officially underway for children across the United States. And one of the iconic images of summer is…well the sun. And the sun was on full display on the last day of May outside of the Millington Public Library. And area youth Zachary and Lidiah Slepicka were hanging out with their Grandma when they ran into amateur astronomers Bob and Karen Wiltrout. Invited by their daughter Beatrice Nobles of the Millington Library, the Wiltrouts spent a couple of hours outside of the facility with their Solar Event items including a pair of high-power reflective telescopes. Both Slepicka children heard the chart explained by Karen and then Bob allowed them to take a look of the sun through both telescopes. Not only children enjoyed the sight of the sun through the telescopes as a white and red dot. Sheri Brunson got a view of the sun through the lenses. Karen reminded Brunson and others, “Nobody looks at the sun with the naked eye.” Instead telescopes like the hydrogen alpha (h-alpha) telescope brought by the Wiltrouts from Tony, Wis., allowed Brunson to see the largest star in the solar system as a red dot with clouds around it. Then the sun appeared as a white, yellowish dot with no sun spots on that day. Karen and Bob complied the knowledge about the Solar System and sun through years of study and being a part of groups like the Kern Astronomical Society.
Karen said they enjoyed their first visit with their daughter at her new job and having a chance to share their love of astronology.
“We’re having fun and today is a beautiful day for this,” she said. “We have done this for years as part of the Charlie Bates Solar Astronomy Project and others. It’s a lot of fun.”
The Millington Public Library is located at 4858 Navy Road in Millington. For more information on programs, events, resources and hours, call 872-1585.
