Observatory dome heading to Vermont

OLD LYME, Conn. (AP) - A Connecticut school's observatory dome has been saved from the scrap heap and soon will have a new home in Vermont.

Elizabeth Osga, superintendent of the Lyme-Old Lyme Public Schools, says Springfield Telescope Makers of Springfield, Vt., offered to take the 26-year-old dome after learning it might be sold as scrap metal.

The Day of New London reports the dome was donated in 1985 by a now-defunct foundation to sit atop the district's high school.

However, that building is being renovated and the cost to remove, store and reinstall the rarely used observatory's dome was considered prohibitive.

The nonprofit Vermont group's members say they will pick up the dome sometime in the coming week. The school district kept the telescope from the observatory, though, and put it in storage.

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Information from: The Day