Siberians see eclipse reviving homemade telescope

By Natalya Sokhareva

BARNAUL, Russia (Reuters) - From a garden bursting with roses, violets, burgeoning cabbages and broken furniture in the remote West Siberian town of Barnaul rises a rickety wooden tower capped with an aluminium dome.

World War Two veteran and astronomy enthusiast Mikhail Levchenko built this telescope and observatory from scratch in the 1970s, working far from the grand research centres that were once at the heart of the Soviet space race with the West.

Now, the neighbours and locals he mesmerised with his creation want to bring it back to life, and they hope a total solar eclipse on August 1 will inspire enthusiasts elsewhere to support them.

Since Levchenko's death in 2002, the telescope, which has a 40-cm (16-inch) diameter glass lens that magnified 500 times, has gathered dust. Thieves tried to steal it for the scrap metal it once was and the observatory sank deeper into the ground.

"The instrument created by Levchenko is unique -- it gives such precise images like no other," said Oleg Petrov, who as a child would look through the telescope and listen to Levchenko's lessons and is now among those who want to restore it.

U.S. space agency NASA has said the total solar eclipse -- the first in two years -- will pass over Canada, China, Mongolia and Russia -- including Barnaul, where the sun will disappear for 2 minutes 16 seconds.

It identified a 300-km (186-mile) stretch of road leading to the town which would lie directly under the path of the hidden sun.

"Observers of the solar eclipse will come to the Altai region from France, Italy and America," Petrov said. "We dream of showing them the telescope -- and maybe they could help."