2 replies to this topic

[JWBriggs]

Hi Folks--

 

Mark Sproul and I are very grateful to have discovered helpful information on Cloudy Nights regarding the highly respected mirror maker, Richard A. Fagin of Summit Instruments in Florida.  Richard was also a viola player in the Palm Beach Symphony Orchestra.  He got his start in mirror making at Adler Planetarium, and he was 31 years old in November of 1988. See:

https://www.latimes....-598-story.html

 

Richard was also the person who first suggested establishing the now-long-running Winter Star Party in Florida:

https://www.explores...3HLu4kuheeWlGLf

 

A factoid that we can add to history related to Mr. Fagin is that he was the optician responsible for modifying the iconic 18 1/2-inch Cave Astrola telescope that had been made for Henry Clay Gibson (1885-1997).  Many readers will know the grand instrument from the Cave Astrola catalogues.  Gibson lived in Florida in his final years, but he had long been a member of the Rittenhouse Astronomical Society in Philadelphia.

https://www.rittenho...ety.org/history

 

Gibson donated a two-dome observatory housing the 18 1/2-inch and an unusual early 10-inch apochromatic refractor by Perkin Elmer to the University of Miami.  The University eventually decided to move the telescopes and domes to its campus, including a conversion of the 18 1/2-inch around that time into a Newtonian-Cassegrainian of shorter primary focal length.  In 2024, the 18 1/2-inch was transferred to Mark Sproul.

 

Mark and I wonder if the 18 1/2-inch mirror might be the largest known mirror figured by Mr. Fagin.  Thanks to comments recorded here on Cloudy Nights, we've learned that Fagin was highly regarded as an optician.  We understand that he closed his optical shop after it was damaged by Hurricane Andrew in 1992.  If anyone has information about Mr. Fagin's later activities, many readers here have been interested to learn more. 

 

--John W. Briggs. 

 

Edited by JWBriggs, 05 September 2024 - 02:59 PM.

[deSitter]

Hi Folks--

 

Mark Sproul and I are very grateful to have discovered helpful information on Cloudy Nights regarding the highly respected mirror maker, Richard A. Fagin of Summit Instruments in Florida.  Richard was also a viola player in the Palm Beach Symphony Orchestra.  He got his start in mirror making at Adler Planetarium, and he was 31 years old in November of 1988. See:

https://www.latimes....-598-story.html

 

Richard was also the person who first suggested establishing the now-long-running Winter Star Party in Florida:

https://www.explores...3HLu4kuheeWlGLf

 

A factoid that we can add to history related to Mr. Fagin is that he was the optician responsible for modifying the iconic 18 1/2-inch Cave Astrola telescope that had been made for Henry Clay Gibson (1885-1997).  Many readers will know the grand instrument from the Cave Astrola catalogues.  Gibson lived in Florida in his final years, but he had long been a member of the Rittenhouse Astronomical Society in Philadelphia.

https://www.rittenho...ety.org/history

 

Gibson donated a two-dome observatory housing the 18 1/2-inch and an unusual early 10-inch apochromatic refractor by Perkin Elmer to the University of Miami.  The University eventually decided to move the telescopes and domes to its campus, including a conversion of the 18 1/2-inch around that time into a Newtonian-Cassegrainian of shorter primary focal length.  In 2024, the 18 1/2-inch was transferred to Mark Sproul.

 

Mark and I wonder if the 18 1/2-inch mirror might be the largest known mirror figured by Mr. Fagin.  Thanks to comments recorded here on Cloudy Nights, we've learned that Fagin was highly regarded as an optician.  We understand that he closed his optical shop after it was damaged by Hurricane Andrew in 1992.  If anyone has information about Mr. Fagin's later activities, many readers here have been interested to learn more. 

 

--John W. Briggs. 

 

Scopezilla! I wondered if even one example existed!!

 

-drl

[NinePlanets]

I don't have later activities, but I do have earlier ones. I took these photos of a Richard Fagin of Chicago at the National Amateur Astronomers Convention in Boulder in August of 1977 with my trusty Kodak 110 Pocket Camera. He gave me his business card (printed on photographic paper, as I recall) regarding his custom telescope making business. Pictured is a wooden Cassegrain he brought. I'm pretty sure the blue tube is one of his too. The pretty lady was also his.

 

He did good. I wonder if he knew then that he would go that far? Obviously had the telescope bug in his blood.

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Edited by NinePlanets, 05 September 2024 - 05:07 PM.