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AMAZING FULL MOON STAR PARTY!!

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236 replies to this topic

#51 Daniel Mounsey

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Posted 01 July 2007 - 06:12 PM

Lew,
Did Ralph know Robert Burnham Jr.?

#52 Glassthrower

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Posted 01 July 2007 - 06:20 PM

If you guys keep this up, I may have to pin this to the top of the forum for a while.

:)

#53 Bonco

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Posted 01 July 2007 - 06:27 PM

It should be pinned and added to if other pictures are available. So much history here and not available anywhere else.
Bonco

#54 clintwhitman

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Posted 01 July 2007 - 06:30 PM

Well my fridays are tighted up for a while. Dan John put a super focuser on my Unitron yesturday !!!! cool
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#55 JWW

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Posted 01 July 2007 - 06:56 PM

Dan John put a super focuser on my Unitron yesturday !!!! cool


What would that be? Have any pictures and/or more information?

-JWW:

#56 ngc2289

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Posted 01 July 2007 - 08:27 PM

OH! I hate needles! :rolling: :smarty: :)

#57 Daniel Mounsey

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Posted 01 July 2007 - 08:58 PM

John can build anything and fix anything with scopes. He's been doing it for 54 years.

#58 Lew Chilton

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Posted 02 July 2007 - 12:31 AM

Here's another Charlton Flats memory. I took this the morning after the star party, when most people had packed up and left.

The last scope on the field was Frank Grow's 14-inch fork mounted Newt. which he transported on a homemade trailer behind his pickup and camper. In this shot the scope is ready for loading. Among those helping Frank to load the scope was Leif Robinson, seen at right wearing a white sports car cap, standing behind Jack Eastman's Renault. Robinson is editor emeritus of Sky & Telescope magazine.

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  • 1694823-CHARLTON FLATS - Grow scope - 1.jpg

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#59 Lew Chilton

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Posted 02 July 2007 - 12:36 AM

In this next shot taken at Charlton Flats in 1961 (looking west), the people helping Frank Grow load his scope are, from left, Ronny Thomas, Frank Grow, unknown, Leif Robinson (wearing white cap) and Jack Eastman.

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  • 1694826-CHARLTON FLATS - Grow scope - 2.jpg

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#60 mikey cee

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Posted 02 July 2007 - 12:47 AM

That 14-incher looked like a big cannon that just recoiled after letting loose with a round! Neat picture! :roflmao:Mike

#61 Steve_M_M

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Posted 02 July 2007 - 11:02 AM

Here is some information from Goto on production numbers for the 6".

This thread is amazing!

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#62 Lew Chilton

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Posted 02 July 2007 - 01:45 PM

Here's a picture of the Frank Grow telescope as it appeared on the cover of the August 1958 issue of Griffith Observer magazine, the publication of the Griffith Observatory and Planetarium in Los Angeles. Griffith's then director, Dr. Clarence Cleminshaw, is on the sidewalk; Frank Grow is on the ladder. When this picture was taken, the scope had a 16-inch mirror, but when it was donated to the Los Angeles Astronical Society in the early 1970s, after Grow's death, it had a 14-1/2 inch mirror.

This is the same mount design utilized by Clarke Harris and discussed in another forum thread, "Cave 12.5" F6 - Alika Herring Mirror," page 3.

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  • 1695713-GRIFFITH OBSERVER, Aug 1958 cover.jpg

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#63 Lew Chilton

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Posted 09 July 2007 - 02:08 PM

Back in 2001, John Pons took possession of the 6-inch Goto described earlier in this thread. Here's the Goto when it was owned by Joe Choate in 1960.

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  • 1707556-6-INCH GOTO REFRACTOR.jpg

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#64 Lew Chilton

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Posted 09 July 2007 - 02:36 PM

In 2001, the Choate residence was in a dilapidated state and the new owner wanted to dispose of the dome and its contents, the 6-inch Goto. She offered the telescope gratis to Griffith Observatory, but the offer was declined because of the expense involved in dismantling the observatory and restoring the telescope.

Griffith Observatory, which had previously employed the services of Pons to refurbish its 12-inch Zeiss refractor and upgrade the planetarium's sound system, contacted him about the Goto offer. That is how Pons acquired that wonderful, old instrument and how it restoration to it original glory began.

The snapshots that follow show the state of the Choate house, dome and Goto refractor at the time Pons began the dismantling process.

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  • 1707609-6-inch Goto refractor dilapidation - 1small.jpg

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#65 Lew Chilton

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Posted 09 July 2007 - 02:46 PM

Here's the beginning of the teardown of the 6-inch Goto. The dome had leaked for years and corrosion and dirt had taken a toll.

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  • 1707630-6-inch Goto refractor dilapidation - 2.jpg


#66 Lew Chilton

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Posted 09 July 2007 - 02:53 PM

Another view...

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  • 1707638-6-inch Goto refractor dilapidation - 3small.jpg


#67 Lew Chilton

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Posted 09 July 2007 - 03:01 PM

The Goto's new owner, John Pons, dismantling the historic refractor. John spent the next 4 years restoring this Goto to its former glory.

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  • 1707656-6-inch Goto refractor dilapidation - 4small.jpg

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#68 Lew Chilton

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Posted 09 July 2007 - 03:08 PM

Here's the way it looks today.

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  • 1707670-PONS STAR PARTY - 1A.jpg

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#69 Lew Chilton

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Posted 09 July 2007 - 03:10 PM

And another view of the 6-inch Goto...

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  • 1707674-6-inch GOTO in driveway - 1A.jpg

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#70 trainsktg

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Posted 09 July 2007 - 03:17 PM

That home looks like something out of the Addams Family. What a change in just 40 years.

Keith

#71 mikey cee

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Posted 09 July 2007 - 04:32 PM

Lew...The new owner must be redoing the home. I wouldn't think you would go to the trouble of stripping wallboard off the observatory interior. Any way you or Jon can find out what happened to the Choate family. Sounds like a good mystery to unravel. Must be a paper trail there somewhere in public records? :question: ;)Mike

#72 Lew Chilton

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Posted 09 July 2007 - 09:44 PM

Mike,

I took your advice and did a little on-line research and believe I located Joe Choate, Jr. He's about Pons' age. I left a telephone message and hope he returns my call.

I also located the record of Joe Choate and his family's return from Tokyo on April 27, 1956 aboard Northwest Airlines. I'm attaching a copy of the air passenger manifest. I believe this was the trip when the 6-inch Goto was procured. I've found even more information, but it's not really relevant to this thread.

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  • 1708458-CHOATE PASSENGER LIST.jpg

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#73 Daniel Mounsey

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Posted 10 July 2007 - 10:00 AM

Lew,

How in heavans do you find all this stuff? :lol:

#74 Lew Chilton

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Posted 10 July 2007 - 01:35 PM

Dan,

It's not that big a deal. It helps to be a retired investigator and an amateur genealogist.
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#75 Rinaldo

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Posted 13 July 2007 - 02:48 PM

:jawdrop: :jawdrop: :jawdrop: :jawdrop: :jawdrop: :jawdrop: :jawdrop: :jawdrop: :jawdrop: :jawdrop: :jawdrop: :jawdrop: :jawdrop: :jawdrop: :jawdrop:

I'm movin to the west coast!


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