324 replies to this topic

[Stevegeo]

And a few more,

We took a look inside and its quite an operation , however that very day they shut it off to the public after we got there due to national security .
We were allowed inside , but no photos inside .. bummer. But at least we got to go!!
Stevegeo

[Terra Nova]

Terra, looking forward to a report on your observing experience! Hope you have great skies!

Sorry to be so late in getting back to you. It was rather disappointing. Turns out only the Merz was opened up and it was only set up on Saturn. The viewing sucked. The views from the Clark in September and Merz two weeks earlier were superb, but not this time. It was all, as Chas says, “mush” at 216X. The seeing was terrible. I only stayed a few minutes, took a brief look, then came home and set up my Tak FC-76 on my deck (only takes five minutes) and enjoyed the warm evening for an hour. It was a lovely night otherwise, and felt like early September. I did manage to have some nice views of Saturn and Jupiter at home that were made possible with the smaller aperture, and at lower powers (under 150X) but not beyond that. I mostly stayed between 15X and 90X.. Nothing was going on on Jupiter other than the four moons nicely splayed out. Sometimes, the little ‘dainty’ low power views are best and that night was one of those times.

[rcwolpert]

Sorry to hear that the views with the Merz were disappointing.   Nights like that reinforce our appreciation of our smaller classic scopes that are not as susceptible to bad seeing conditions.

[Dave Mitsky]

The following are some of the photos that I took of Robert Todd Lincoln's observatory at the Hildene House, which I visited after attending this year's Stellafane ATM convention.

 

Information on the observatory and its 6" refractor can be found at https://davidjkent-w...ory-at-hildene/

There's more at https://www.cloudyni...cope/?p=1839921

Apparently, Robert Lincoln found the original instrument too small, for he soon commissioned Warner and Swasey of Cleveland, Ohio, to provide a six inch refractor for the observatory. The lens was ground by John A. Brashear of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Cost for the completed telescope was $1,920 and was installed in the summer of 1909.

Information on the Hildene House is available at https://hildene.org/

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[Jeff B1]

23-inch Clarke in Greenville, SC.  Was sister lens of Lowell 24".

 

An images of it: 

http://tse4.mm.bing....48cbo0&pid=15.1

 

And:  http://astroguyz.com...01/DSC_0557.jpg

The links are dead.  Internet sucks when it comes to keeping links alive.

[Oregon-raybender]

I guess the scope is no longer in use. Sad

 

Starry Nights

[Jeff B1]

23-inch Clarke in Greenville, SC.  Was sister lens of Lowell 24".

 

An images of it: 

http://tse4.mm.bing....48cbo0&pid=15.1

 

And:  http://astroguyz.com...01/DSC_0557.jpg

Those links died but here is a better one of the Danial's Observatory;  https://www.ropermou...id=observatory#

 

 

Parker and I visited there several times during the 1988 Mars Apparition and later to commemorate the opening of the Charles F. Capen Library. They closed his library years later for some reason.  The director of the observatory, Doug Gegen who was one of our Mars observers in Miami during his high school years.  He went on to get a PhD in Astrophysics and become their director.  Unfortunately, he passed away with Alsheimer's just a few years ago.  He was one great person.  The guy on his left is Don Roades, a friend of ours many years who lived in Naples, FL. Haven't seen him in years.

 

Doug on left: Parker with his cane in my foot! 

Edited by Jeff B1, 29 August 2024 - 04:00 PM.

[Geo31]

1.  Harlan Schmidt

2.  Hobby-Ebberly

3.  Otto Struve

 

This was a weekend I went for a Special Viewing Night.  Sadly it was rained out, but I went back about 6 months later and viewed several objects through the 82" Otto Struve.  Breath-taking.  Expensive, but well worth the money.  My bucket list includes renting the 60" at Mt Wilson for the night with a very small handful of friends.  I'd love to rent the 100" but that is a bit out of my comfort zone.

Heh.  Interestingly enough, two months ago I was able to view through both the 60” and 100” at Mt Wilson.  It was VERY cool to stand where greats have stood, and view through those scopes.  That said, the views were very much underwhelming.  The skies above Mt Wilson almost never get dark (still kinda blue at 1:00 am).  The 82” Otto Struve blew both away.  I need to go back for another SVN.

[Weisswurst Josef]

In november 2012 I visited the Sternwarte Bogenhausen in Munich founded as Königliche Sternwarte in 1816. Since 1835 it has a big refractor with a lens diameter of 28.5 centimeters (11 inch), focal length 5 meters (16.4 feet). The blank was melted by Joseph von Fraunhofer before his death (1826). He also designed the parallactic mount.

 

 

 

 

Edited by Weisswurst Josef, 04 September 2024 - 01:30 PM.

[Weisswurst Josef]

 

 

[Weisswurst Josef]

 

 

[SkipW]

An 1894 18" Brashear refractor, originally at UPenn (1896 - 1954). After being stored for more than 50 years in New Zealand, it was restored (2016 - 2019) and is now available for public outreach in the Dark Sky Project's museum, Lake Tekapo, NZ, in the Aoraki-Mackenzie Dark Sky Reserve.

 

 

 

 

[deSitter]

An 1894 18" Brashear refractor, originally at UPenn (1896 - 1954). After being stored for more than 50 years in New Zealand, it was restored (2016 - 2019) and is now available for public outreach in the Dark Sky Project's museum, Lake Tekapo, NZ, in the Aoraki-Mackenzie Dark Sky Reserve.

 

 

 

This is fantastic! New life for an old warrior!

 

-drl

[roscoe]

Well, this one is sorta sad, but..... bigger dishes, budget cuts, and a perfectly good radio telescope gets the wrecker's ball:

 

http://philosophyofs...-astronomy.html

 

Actually, it is particularly sad for me, because I was the senior carpenter on the crew during the construction of this scope....and watching my work go into a dumpster was painful.

[ccwemyss]

I remember when the FCRAO dome was replaced. The crane was too short so the dish had to be angled to get it to go over it. A wind came up and the dome banged against the dish. Then it had to have the surface adjusted to restore the figure. Sort of the radio telescope equivalent of getting a clam chip while removing the objective from its cell. 

 

The one time I visited, with a friend who was on a research project there, the operators were gloating over the fact that they were gathering data on a rainy day, when no optical telescope could possibly be used.

 

Chip W. 

[roscoe]

Yep, they ran that scope day and night, rain and shine, for years. 

For the first several years, the operators were right there, later, they connected it to the lab at UMass, and ran it from there.

[roscoe]

The dome of the FCRAO telescope was an engineering masterpiece.  Each aluminum frame strut was made to be non-resonant at the intended operating frequencies, no two triangles were the same, and each only fit in one place in the structure.  And, amazingly, the whole 3-D jigsaw puzzle actually fit together!