Members of the Marquette Astronomical Society donate “Galileo,” an Orion StarBlast telescope, to the Peter White Library, the second such telescope it has given to the library for public checkout. From left are Anne Donohue, who also is president of the PWPL Board of Trustees; Larry Buege; and Scott Stobbelaar. (Journal photo by Christie Bleck)

MARQUETTE — Galileo now shares a residence with Isaac.

The Marquette Astronomical Society on Tuesday donated a new telescope, named Galileo, to the Peter White Public Library where the item can be checked out in the same manner a patron would check out a library book.

Galileo, an Orion StarBlast 4.5-inch reflector telescope, is the second telescope the MAS has given the library for public use, the first being one named Isaac.

The MAS in 2016 donated a similar Orion StarBlast telescope, which the community also has been checking out regularly. Since it came to the library, the telescope has been checked out 44 times.

The first Orion telescope is a reflecting Newtonian telescope, named after the person who developed it: the physicist Sir Isaac Newton. In fact, that’s why the telescope is named Isaac.

The new telescope, however, has a Barlow lens, which will double the magnification of the first one and allow patrons to see more detail, said MAS member Scott Stobbelaar.

Stobbelaar, along with MAS members Larry Buege and Anne Donohue, officially handed over the new telescope to the PWPL Tuesday.

The new scope probably will require more skill to use.

“The two scopes are different,” Buege said. “This one’s going to be harder to use; requires a lot more patience. If you’re ‘first time out,’ if you have a choice, Isaac might be easier to look at the moon and what not.”

Galileo, whose name was chosen by MAS members, was acquired after the group won a regional drawing this summer from the Astronomical League — an umbrella organization of astronomy clubs and societies — to receive a library scope, financed by the Jack Horkheimer Foundation.

The late Horkheimer had a short astronomy show, originally called “Jack Horkheimer: Star Hustler,” but later was renamed “Star Gazers.”

MAS had to perform a few tweaks on Galileo after receiving it.

“I didn’t realize it would not be modified,” Stobbelaar said.

So, he said Galileo was “tamper-proofed” to protect it from things like getting out of alignment, which included adding bolts.

Galileo, though, is more powerful than Isaac.

“This one, you can actually see in-between Saturn and the rings,” Buege said. “On the other one, it just looks like a round ball with the wings on it, but with this one with the maximum power, you can see the actual separate rings.”

Stobbelaar agreed there are a few differences between Isaac and Galileo.

“The first one is really great on the moon and the planets,” Stobbelaar said. “This one, you’ll be able to get some of the nebulae, like the Orion Nebula.

“It’ll be interesting if this one gets checked out more because it has more power.”

The added power, he said, comes from the Barlow lens, which in Gallileo’s case is a “shorty.”

“If we had a full-sized Barlow lens, it would really, really go up,” Stobbelaar said.

However, he noted the lens narrows the view and cuts down on the light, with Buege adding it also magnifies vibrations.

“That’s the trade-off,” Stobbelaar said.

The public’s use of Isaac appears to have gone smoothly. In fact, Stobbelaar said he received only one call from an Isaac user who said it didn’t work. It turned out the telescope needed just a new battery after having been left on.

Not only is Donohue a MAS member, she is president of the PWPL Board of Trustees.

“I just am extremely pleased to accept this on behalf of the library, and as a member of the Marquette Astronomical Society, to be the one donating this,” Donohue said.

The telescope-to-library movement is taking off.

In a 2016 article in Sky & Telescope magazine, It was noted the New Hampshire Astronomical Society, concerned about the group’s aging membership, wanted to attract a younger crowd. So, it developed an outreach program in which telescopes were donated to local libraries, some of which had months-long waiting lists of patrons eager to use the telescopes.

According to the St. Louis Astronomical Society’s website at slasonline.org, it has placed numerous telescopes in Illinois and Missouri through a checkout program for the general public and an “educator” checkout program available only to qualified educators.

If anyone is intimidated by the thought of using Galileo, what should help are instructions that accompany the telescope.

However, a little scientific challenge probably is a good thing.

“When people take this out, they will find out how difficult it is to be an amateur astronomer,” Stobbelaar said.