Lessons are in the stars for Riverhead students with observatory's reopening

Standing in the newly reopened Riverhead High School astronomy observatory brought back memories for retired science teacher George Bartunek recently as he recalled the early days of using the facility's 15-foot telescope to marvel at the wonders of space.

“It was amazing, the excitement of people just to look at the moon,” said Bartunek, who taught at the school in the 1980s. “We’d have not just the kids, but the parents would be really excited just to get a closer view of the moon.”

The observatory reopened April 27 after being closed for about a decade due to a malfunction in the roof hatch that opens so the telescope can point at the sky, according to school officials.

Riverhead resident John E. Young built the telescope in 1934 with his father, Orville Young, before donating it to the school district in 1980. It has a lens that world-renowned craftsman Harry Fisk created in the 1880s, the last known example of Fisk's work not on display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

Known as J.E. Young Observatory, the facility also was built in 1934 and then moved in the early 1980s to the high school through the efforts of Riverhead educators and students, school officials said.

Recently, the town hired developer Joseph Petrocelli of Ronkonkoma-based J. Petrocelli Development Associates to work on repairs to the observatory before he said he ended up absorbing the cost of the $3,000 job as a donation.

For now, the observatory will be used to educate the district’s students, but school officials hope eventually to open the facility to the public for events, as well as make additional improvements, according to district superintendent Augustine Tornatore.

Riverhead High astronomy teacher Lance Mion said astronomy and earth science students will be able to learn more about space and the universe at large with the use of the observatory.

School district officials said that even history students have been using the observatory to learn about the difference between heliocentric and geocentric solar system models.

Mion said students also can use the telescope to learn about celestial objects like sunspots and how to calculate their size.

The students also can study the orbits of moons and explore the moons of Jupiter and Saturn’s rings by gazing up at celestial wonders from the observatory, the teacher said.

“When you show someone, they’re more likely to learn than just talking to them. When we turn off the lights and they can’t see the hand in front of their face and then they look up at the sky, they go ‘Wow, that’s kind of cool,' " Mion added.

Lorena Correa, a Riverhead High sophomore who is taking an earth science class, said the observatory gives students “a real experience” of exploring the heavens.

“We learn astronomy in class and talk about it with Mr. Mion,” she said. “But to actually be able to experience it in the observatory is way different."