RACINE COUNTY - The Galileoscope, a United Nations project and telescope kit being built by a Racine company, is entering the production stage.

The Galileoscope is a telescope kit designed to spark an astronomical interest in people around the world. It is the largest of 11 projects for the U.N.'s International Year of Astronomy 2009.

A small Racine company, Merit Models, 1833 Oakdale Ave., will manufacture the kits, in China.

Friday Galileoscope reached the launching pad by going live with its Web site, which is the vehicle through which people order the scopes.

And Monday, Merit Models began running parts in China, said company President Tom Smith. He expects to begin delivering finished Galileoscopes in late April, after enough of them have been built to feasibly begin shipping.

The project also needs to gather tens of thousands of orders before there is enough revenue to support production, said Carthage College astronomy professor Doug Arion. Since he heard about the Galileoscope concept at an astronomy conference last January, Arion has moved it to the brink of production, in collaboration with Smith.

The Galileoscope concept was to produce an inexpensive but powerful telescope this year and make it available to astronomical newcomers around the world. From the start, the goal has been to distribute the telescopes to 1 million people this year alone.

The project was conceived for 2009, the 400th anniversary since Galileo Galilei used his primitive telescope to make significant observations in outer space.

The 20-inch telescope that Arion and Smith designed will at first give a crude image much like the one Galileo first saw. The idea, Arion said, is to give the viewer a sense of going back 400 years for a first peek at the skies.

But then, with a 10-minute conversion, it transforms into a surprisingly powerful modern telescope, said Smith, himself an amateur astronomer with several telescopes of his own. He said the Galileoscope, used at either 25 or 50 magnification, will be able to show Saturn's rings, for example.

All of that for no more than $15 per telescope, with volume discounts.

By Monday afternoon, just three days after the Web site went live, buyers had ordered several thousand telescopes, Arion said.

He expects to soon get some large orders. The Norwegian government is talking about ordering 15,000, for example, and other nations have also voiced interest.

But Arion said the ideal is still to have a corporate partner guarantee a $3.5 million line of credit. That way, the Galileoscope limited liability corporation could buy materials and get into full production instead of waiting for orders to pile up.

If they can get financing, Arion said Galileoscope production could easily continue beyond this International Year of Astronomy. For example, the telescope could be used in college and university astronomy classes, as a class material for students.

Galileoscope prices:

$15 each, up to 99 units.

$12.50, orders of 100 or more.

$27 for two; the United Nations will donate the second scope to a needy person somewhere in the world.

For more information or to order, visit https://www.galileoscope.org/gs.