The John J. McCarthy Observatory, located on the grounds of New Milford High School on Route 7, has an exciting proposal-for all ages.
It aims to construct a true-to-scale model of the sun's planets-spreading them all across town.
Picture it this way: The sun and its terrestrial planets-Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars-will be sited at New Milford High School, Jupiter will be at Hill & Plain School, Saturn at Harrybrooke Park, Uranus at Sarah Noble Intermediate School, Neptune at the library on the Green, and Pluto, "an orphan," at Canterbury School, according to Bob Lambert, the treasurer of the observatory, who is pursuing funding prospects for the project.
Can't imagine it yet? Well, each planet-probably constructed of wood and other material-would be mounted on a five-foot stainless steel pyramid.
The sun would be six feet in diameter and Jupiter, the largest of the planets, would be 7.39 inches, according to Mr. Lambert. Earth? That would be 0.66 inches in diameter. And Pluto, 0.117 inches-"a lot smaller than your fingernail," he said.
"It's important to remember that the size and distance are scaled based on the six-foot sun," Mr. Lambert pointed out.
Not to leave Northville Elementary School out, it would have an installation as well, "which will talk about the outer solar system and beyond."
"There will be a total of 10 of these around town," the Brookfield resident said.
Pluto, he noted, is there, "in the Kuiper belt, and after that comes the Oort cloud-maybe up to a trillion comets gravitationally connected to our sun."
According to Mr. Lambert, there are only "about 30 to 40 such installations in the world. He saw one of them in Ithaca, N.Y., "when [noted astronomer] Carl Sagan was there [on the faculty of Cornell University."
William Quinnell, the observatory's chairman, brought it to the attention of municipal government, and the mayor's office said that the town's top administrator, Pat Murphy, has been "very supportive" of the 2009 Year of Astronomy. The town's zoners, too, found the proposal interesting, although they had no need to give it formal approval.
"The superintendent of schools [Dr. JeanAnnPaddyfote] is supportive as well," said Mr. Lambert, who offered a unique outlook on how the project might monumentally affect local school children.
"Think of it this way," he said. "Kids starting out at Northville, in prekindergarten (age 4), will get to learn something about Pluto in the Kuiper belt; then, going on to Jupiter at Hill & Plain, Uranus at Sarah Noble, and so forth. If they graduate from the high school, they will have more than 12 years' experience. It's profound. The knowledge base is vast."
He added, "We expect this to outlive anyone who is here in town today."
It would mean a lot to him personally since he grew up literally looking at the night sky.
"We lived in Michigan, and when I was growing up there were no lights on all around at night. No skyglow. We'd just sit out and stare at the stars. And then when I met Monty, in the spring of 1998, he brought back memories of that time and I've been involved, and excited about it, ever since."
"We're having the time of our lives with this," Mr. Lambert said, referring to the observatory board and other volunteers.
"It's the best thing I've ever done in my life," said the retired IBM executive.
Other aspect of the project, he noted, would be Galileo's Garden, with a large sundial, at the high school, Mr. Lambert said. Also, there would be "a solar clock and calendar that Monty [Robson, the observatory president] designed."
This is the "400th anniversary of when Galileo first pointed a telescope at the sky," he said. "He studied the moons of Venus and Jupiter and found that the moons were orbiting around Jupiter, not around Earth, and said he could prove we are not the only world. The pope at the time didn't like this and for most of the rest of his life Galileo was under house arrest."
The estimated cost of the project is $30,000, "but if we could get more, we'd do it even better," said Mr. Lambert, who is seeking funding from several sources, largely private. "We've raised close to $450,000 already for the observatory," which opened in December 2002.
"From the beginning Monty and I wanted to do a true-scale solar system, and the 2009 International Year of Astronomy, which is being celebrated in over 130 countries, is a great hook," he said.
"We just started raising money, and we'll ramp it up over the next couple of months," Mr. Lambert said, adding, "Everything we've done, we've gotten a lot of help from this town. From small businesses, there have been discounts and in-kind donations, and private support, too. It's always been this way here."
For more information about the McCarthy Observatory and the true-to-scale project, visit online at www.mccarthyobservatory.org.
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